The CNMI has set a target date of July 15 to reopen the CNMI to tourists, but that is not set in stone and there are many moving parts that are still being addressed leading up to that date.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a radio news briefing yesterday, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres clarified that the July 15 date is the goal but that date is a moving target. \u201cOur goal is to hit July 15, and if we make it, excellent. If not, it\u2019s a moving target date. The most important is to make sure that our tourist partners understands, we have an understanding, on how to approach our new tourism industry here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The CNMI government is also working with the CNMI\u2019s partners in Japan and South Korea to address concerns. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of moving factors that needs to be addressed before we get there. It\u2019s not as simple as opening up and hope that they come. There\u2019s a strong collaboration,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
With Skymark Airlines Inc.\u2019s recent announcement that their flights will be moved to the end of July, Torres said that there is more time for the community to adjust and feel safe about the reopening of the CNMI.<\/p>\n
He said that the COVID-19 Task Force, and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., together with his Economic Recovery team, have been working on looking into where the community stands in relation to the COVID-19 mass testing, the community\u2019s vulnerability level, and what directives should and can be alleviated.<\/p>\n
New directives too fast? <\/strong><\/p>\n When asked whether the lifting of restrictions are happening too fast, with the CNMI jumping two steps from Red to Yellow on the color-coded community vulnerability scale, CHCC chief executive officer Esther Mu\u00f1a said, \u201cIt\u2019s actually not too fast. \u2026The restrictions are still there.\u201d<\/p>\n Mu\u00f1a highlighted what the community has collectively accomplished to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on island, in terms of social distancing, sanitation, wearing of masks, and taking the test.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took a lot of thinking about what can we do, and how can we ensure the public that they are safe. A lot of it is also monitoring and checking and making sure that there are actually penalties\u2026if you don\u2019t follow,\u201d she said. \u201cThose restrictions are there for a reason. Again, it can always be taken back. \u2026If you have to go back to red, if that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen, then we\u2019re going to have to go back to even stricter directives. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The CHCC CEO also said that the directives are also about how many people are being tested and how prevalent COVID-19 is in the community.<\/p>\n As for businesses, Mu\u00f1a said that meetings with the Saipan Chamber of Commerce had been happening, focusing on social distancing and sanitation that they need to implement as they resume operations.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of these establishments already practice using that guidance. Most, if not all of them, already are practicing it so we will continue to provide that support for them. We\u2019re available. The Bureau of Environmental Health is there working with them, making sure that they understand what is required,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Torres assured that, compared with neighboring territories and the rest of the United States, the CNMI has the strictest directives in place. \u201cOur growth and our lifting of directive is based on our success and progress as a community. Everyone, [including] our private partners, have a stake into reopening CNMI. …I strongly believe that we\u2019re moving in the right direction and [at] the right pace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The CNMI has set a target date of July 15 to reopen the CNMI to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":323735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22744],"class_list":["post-323697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-torres-july"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323697","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=323697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}