The suspension of all international flights to the CNMI will surely impact the Commonwealth Ports Authority\u2019s finances and the Commonwealth\u2019s economy, but Barrie C. Toves believes that the health and safety of the CNMI\u2019s people must be protected. <\/p>\n
In fact, it will give the CNMI a fighting chance against the COVID-19 coronavirus, said Toves, who chairs the CPA board\u2019s Airport Facilities Committee.<\/p>\n
He said the CNMI can now divert its focus and energy on building up its defense, resources, and capabilities to fight the virus on the ground within its borders and without worrying about undetected transmissions from international sources.<\/p>\n
Toves noted that the CNMI\u2019s neighboring island of Guam has already reported an increasing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and one fatality. \u201cThis is very alarming because the virus is already close to our borders, if it is not already here undetected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Toves encouraged people to adhere to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres\u2019 executive order and directives aimed at preventing the spread of the virus. That includes \u201csocial distancing\u201d and limited business operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all in this together and we must fight this invisible enemy together. Stay home to help protect the CNMI,\u201d Toves said.<\/p>\n
Skymark Airlines Inc.\u2019s last flights between Saipan and Japan were yesterday. Once the outbound flight flew out, it temporarily closed the CNMI\u2019s door to international flights. <\/p>\n
Skymark\u2019s Saipan-Narita, Narita-Saipan operations will resume on May 10, 2020. This leaves only United Airlines doing flights between Saipan and Guam in the morning four days a week. Interisland flights via Star Marianas continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The suspension of all international flights to the CNMI will surely impact the Commonwealth Ports…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[257],"class_list":["post-319832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-nmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}