With the community\u2019s cooperation, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is positive that the CNMI will be able to beat the COVID-19 threat on the islands. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re [going to] beat this, but we just need everybody\u2019s patience and cooperation,\u201d the governor said in an interview. <\/p>\n
And until everyone \u201cwork together in addressing this virus together,\u201d it could take a long time before the community lives without the threat of COVID-19 on the islands, he added.<\/p>\n
The CNMI currently has 11 positive cases, with two deaths.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important for all of us to learn from what\u2019s going on around the world,\u201d Torres said, adding that neighboring Guam is struggling, and even states like New York is not having enough personal protective equipment for its nurses and doctors. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t help each other, we\u2019re no different than anybody else,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n
To ensure the CNMI would be able to avoid such a struggle, the COVID-19 Task Force has ordered equipment and supplies, including test kits, from weeks ago, which the government is hoping to receive by next week, on top of the shipments that have been coming in since Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve ordered close to 500,000 masks. We\u2019ve ordered close to 400,000 gowns for our doctors and nurses and first responders, [and] we\u2019ve already ordered about 50,000 test kits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The hardest part of the procurement process is the shipping and getting the orders into the islands, Torres said.<\/p>\n
South Korea also sent Federal Drug Administration-approved test kits to the CNMI, according to the governor. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have enough supplies for our doctors and nurses, as well as our first responders. A chartered flight will be coming in, one [last] Saturday and then [last] Sunday. This will definitely sustain us for a good month, but we continue to move forward in making sure that our orders come in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He stressed the need to take care of the CNMI\u2019s frontliners: its nurses, doctors, and first responders. \u201cWe are preparing everything we can to make sure that they are taken care of\u2026then they are able to, in turn, take care of us, our community,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the community\u2019s cooperation, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is positive that the CNMI will be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":320730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320847","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\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}