Despite a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory that loosens the rules on the use of face masks among fully vaccinated people, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther Mu\u00f1a pleads with the public to continue wearing face masks since \u201cwe are not yet at herd immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Until the CNMI has a high number of vaccinated individuals, then the CNMI can slowly and surely get to the point where it could be okay to not use a mask, Mu\u00f1a said. \u201c[We\u2019re] slowly and surely getting to the point where we can say that \u2018we\u2019re safe now,\u2019 but we\u2019re not there yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease continue to wear your mask. If you\u2019re not sure, put on your mask in any closed setting. Right now, we are not at herd immunity. \u2026These protocols [and] guidelines that have been issued are all because of the progress we made in the past year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Herd immunity is when a large number of people in a community is vaccinated enough to provide indirect protection for the unvaccinated ones. The number varies among different infectious diseases but the typical target is between 50% and 90%, depending on how infectious a disease is. There is no fixed number yet for COVID-19 as it is a new kind of disrease.<\/p>\n
As of May 2, 2021, the CNMI has fully vaccinated 18,859 persons, representing approximately 50% of the eligible population.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a again asked for everyone\u2019s patience and understanding as CHCC, the Governor\u2019s COVID-19 Task Force, and the administration continue to monitor the guidelines being issued by CDC. Mu\u00f1a said that when CHCC and the task force share guidance from CDC, it\u2019s \u201cbased on science and risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s based on science and is based on risk and our community has been so fortunate to have that low [number of COVID-19] cases, and to say that we\u2019ve been safe. We\u2019ve been hearing a lot from our residents that they feel safe, and we want to continue to do that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a also wants to be sure that the CNMI\u2019s health system will continue to stay resilient and \u201cstrong enough to handle any medical system,\u201d which is why she is adamant about the community practicing the 3 W\u2019s\u2013\u2013wearing a mask, watching their distance, and washing your hands\u2013\u2013even if they are vaccinated.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1a reiterated that the reason for every health protocol that has been put in place is for the CNMI community and no one else. \u201cWe\u2019re begging for everyone\u2019s understanding and patience as we continue to see what the next best step for the CNMI is,\u201d said Mu\u00f1a.<\/p>\n
COVID-19 in Guam<\/strong><\/p>\n The Joint Information Center on Guam announced that Guam\u2019s 139th COVID-19-related fatality happened at the Guam Memorial Hospital at approximately 7:08pm last Tuesday. A 70-year-old male patient with underlying health conditions was admitted to GMH on Tuesday and tested positive upon admission.<\/p>\n Also, four new cases of COVID-19 were identified out of 324 tests performed last Wednesday. <\/p>\n To date, there have been a total of 8,020 COVID-19 cases in Guam, with 139 deaths, 98 cases in active isolation, and 7,783 not in active isolation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory that loosens the rules on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":343801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[51],"class_list":["post-343790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-guam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343790","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=343790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}