{"id":336008,"date":"2020-12-31T06:07:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T20:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=336008"},"modified":"2020-12-31T06:07:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T20:07:15","slug":"esther-muna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/esther-muna\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Mu\u00f1a"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Esther Mu\u00f1a<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the CNMI reopened its borders in May to let in returning residents who had been stranded in Guam due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Mu\u00f1a was always at the airport, together with other health care team members, to monitor the arrival of passengers and their transport to the quarantine facility.<\/p>\n

More than just mere monitoring, it was also a tangible show of leadership, making sure that if any questions or issues arose, the people who have the authority were there to immediately respond and make the decision, Mu\u00f1a said. \u201cIn the beginning, one of the reasons why we were there is you have to put some leadership there. \u2026We want to make sure that when they make a decision, that their decision is the right decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Also, she wanted to be there as a support system for CHCC personnel and first responders who were also present at the airport.<\/p>\n

That hands-on approach and the leadership that Mu\u00f1a has shown in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the CNMI leadership\u2019s quick action to put in place a system to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the CNMI, is one of the reasons why the CNMI is now on its fourth month without an instance of community transmission, which is why Saipan Tribune has chosen Mu\u00f1a as its Person of the Year.<\/p>\n

The CNMI\u2019s success in keeping its numbers down is underscored by the fact that, had the CNMI not done anything to combat the spread of COVID-19, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had predicted that there would be 6,000 to 8,000 COVID-19 cases in the CNMI by June this year. That has not happened. In fact, the number of COVID-19 cases in the CNMI\u2014at 122\u2014is only one higher than the 121 COVID-19 deaths in the neighboring island of Guam.<\/p>\n

Of course, that the CNMI has managed to avert a pandemic disaster cannot be attributed to just one person. That feat is because of a potent mix of health care protocols created by CHCC and the COVID-19 Task Force, the quick action of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and his administration in making key decisions and securing needed equipment, the cooperation of the larger CNMI community, and securing the assistance of the CNMI\u2019s business community and its expertise in logistics and getting things done fast. But, much like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has become the face of the United States\u2019 response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mu\u00f1a has also become the CNMI\u2019s de facto face of its COVID-19 response, providing a calming influence on an anxious community that relies on its health care professionals to provide clear answers to questions about the virus.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that Mu\u00f1a herself was never anxious. One of the struggles she faced in dealing with COVID-19 is the fear that she could bring the virus back home to her family. \u201cI have someone in my family that I have to protect. It\u2019s a lot more stress than usual, I tell you,\u201d she said. Mu\u00f1a said those overwhelming emotions also affected her team. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of emotions that come up within not only myself but also within our team. One of the things that come to mind when overcoming it is that we\u2019re not doing this for ourselves, we\u2019re all doing this for the community. And one thing about public health is it\u2019s about protecting the community,\u201d said Mu\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, she said, her main focus is to do the right thing not only for her staff but for the community as well.<\/p>\n

Another one of her struggles as CEO is knowing that she is putting her staff at risk amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about putting our staff at risk. For example, if you\u2019re working in the hospital, that\u2019s a risk that they [the staff] are aware of, but when you\u2019re putting them basically outside the hospital that\u2019s not an operation of CHCC; it\u2019s not a normal operation that we do,\u201d said Mu\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

And, of course, it wasn\u2019t just all COVID-19. She still has a hospital to run, patients to take care of. Mu\u00f1a said that, with more people on her team, she was able to make sure that both were running smoothly. \u201cWorking with the governor, [and] the [COVID-19] task force was key and\u2026that\u2019s why I\u2019m grateful because even at three o\u2019clock in the morning, we\u2019re talking to each other, [saying] we got to get things going. We get on calls with Washington D.C., [and] that it\u2019s just a lot of things that we have to do. In some cases, the last thing on our mind is ourselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Even at the start, Mu\u00f1a said she wanted to make sure that her staff had all the proper personal protective equipment to protect themselves, not only in the hospital but when they started the community-based testing at the Francisco c. Ada\/Saipan International Airport.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all been lovey-dovey for Mu\u00f1a. There may have been disagreements among the people that she\u2019s been working with but she said that nothing is ever personal. \u201cOne of the things that I love about the CNMI is that people may get upset with each other, but they don\u2019t take it personally in the end. That\u2019s what I saw throughout this process is that you get upset, but then the next day, you\u2019re facing this person, and you\u2019re saying, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s just get it done, let\u2019s recharge, and let\u2019s try to do it again,\u2019\u201d said Mu\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

She also cited the community\u2019s cooperation with every COVID-19 protocol that were put in place. No matter how much someone didn\u2019t agree with it, they still followed every protocol, which is why the CNMI hasn\u2019t had a community outbreak for over 130 days, Mu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the CNMI reopened its borders in May to let in returning residents who had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":336009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[2364],"class_list":["post-336008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-esther-mu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336008","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}