{"id":321928,"date":"2020-04-30T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T20:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=321928"},"modified":"2020-04-30T06:00:18","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T20:00:18","slug":"torres-health-and-safety-over-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/torres-health-and-safety-over-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Torres: Health and safety over economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Torres<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is not in a hurry to reopen the islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI applaud President [Donald J. ] Trump for pushing hard in opening the U.S. economy and I understand how important that is. But in order for me to open the economy of the CNMI in terms of tourism, we need to make sure that our community is safe. This assurance goes for all the islands\u2014Saipan, Tinian, and Rota,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump released guidelines to remove COVID-19-related restrictions on people and businesses about two weeks ago in a bid to reopen the United States and revive its economy. He empowered governors to tailor a system based on the guidelines that the White House released that will best suit their jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Torres knows that opening the CNMI economy next month would be ideal. \u201cHowever, these things take time. \u2026Our tourism base come from Japan, Korea, and China and this makes it impossible for us to abruptly open our industry back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If there is already a vaccine against COVID-19, \u201cthen things will be different,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Torres says the CNMI government\u2014together with its partners like Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. CEO Esther Mu\u00f1a, Dr. John Tudela, Warren Villagomez, and the rest of the COVID-19 Task Force\u2014are doing a great job in keeping the CNMI\u2019s COVID-19 infection rate down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been keeping our priorities straight, providing our doctors and nurses personal protective equipment and supplies and\u2026mass testing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Torres, once the CNMI is able to secure the safety of the community, it will be easier for the government to market the CNMI as a tourist destination once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, this pandemic has made us approach tourism in a totally different light. Now, we want to make sure that the tourists that come here are COVID-19-free and tests\u2014whether at the airport or at the hotel\u2014should be held,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAside from the testing, health clearance should also be given by the government. \u2026Also, once we open our gates to flights, what other criteria do we need to implement? …These are crucial points that we are in discussions with our health care partners and Marianas Visitors Authority,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Even as the number of reported COVID-19 cases have been reduced to zero, the CNMI is still stocking up on medical equipment and supplies in the event the numbers change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first graph that was presented to me stated a peak of 6,000 cases in mid-May. But graphs also change as recently, there were some changes pushing the peak to June and some in July. Regardless of when the peak will come, my sight and priority was based on the first projection in May and we\u2019re pushing everything so can meet that deadline,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it hits us in May, we are prepared and we will not wait for June or July. Our efforts are fueled by the thought that we have limited time so we need to maximize that time to get prepared and that is why we are stocking up. \u2026We are maximizing our partnership with federal agencies and looking at other stimulus resources, funds, and grants,\u201d he added,<\/p>\n

Once the air clears, Torres vows to revive the economy. \u201c\u2026Continue social distancing, proper hygiene, and protect our children and families. Let us recover soon and try to get back our economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres is not in a hurry to reopen the islands. \u201cI applaud…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":321873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321928","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\/321928","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}