Guam sees 2 more fatalities

With Guam’s COVID-19 cases continuing to climb, so does its number of COVID-19-related fatalities. Yesterday, Guam confirmed two more COVID-19 deaths, including a 31-year-old woman, Guam’s youngest COVID-19 related death to date.

The grim toll started at the onset of September, with three deaths reported on Sept. 1, Guam’s 11th, 12th, an 13th fatalities—a 73-year-old woman, a 36-year-old woman, and a 74-year-old man—followed by a death each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This raises Guam’s total fatalities to 18, most of them with underlying health issues or with comorbidities, which means they had two or more chronic diseases.

According to the Joint Information Center in Guam, the 17th and 18th fatalities were both known COVID-19 cases. The 31-year-old female was pronounced dead on arrival at the Guam Regional Medical City at approximately 8:46am yesterday. JIC stated that she had underlying health conditions, and is the island’s youngest COVID-19-related death to date, after the 36-year-old woman who passed away last Sept. 1.

Another patient—a 65-year-old male who had comorbidities and was admitted to the Guam Memorial Hospital last Sept. 3 after testing positive for COVID-19—passed away yesterday at approximately 10:09am.

Guam’s Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero stated that it’s never easy losing a member of the community to this horrendous virus, and stresses that the island cannot afford to lose more people. She said that everyone must do their part to not only protect themselves, but protect their loved ones, especially those with medical conditions that can complicate their status if infected by COVID-19.

“My heart breaks every time I receive these calls. [First gentleman] Jeff [Cook], Lt. Gov. Josh [Tenorio], and I send their family and friends our condolences and deepest sympathies,” said Leon Guerrero.

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres cited Guam’s experience in saying at his regular radio briefing last Sept. 4 that much about the virus and how to successfully combat it remains uncertain. He pointed at the CNMI’s latest case, when a sailor who is a part of the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion, also known as Seabees, tested positive last Sept. 2, despite undergoing quarantine procedures before being deployed to Tinian.

Torres said the Seabees sailors were quarantined for the mandatory 14 days. However, once they reached Tinian, one of the sailors tested positive for COVID-19. He added that there are also news reports that 20% of front liners, specifically nurses and physicians, get infected.

When nurses and physicians get infected, the health care system becomes compromised, Torres said, because most of the time they are asymptomatic, which means that they won’t show symptoms until it’s too late. The virus can easily spread just by a cough, a handshake, a hug, and any physical touch.

“I want to again remind everyone that we continue to fight COVID-19, this pandemic, together and not against each other,” said Torres.

To date, Guam has a total of 1,671 confirmed cases, 18 deaths, 744 not in isolation, and 912 cases in active isolation. Of those cases, 1,386 are classified as civilians and 233 are military service members.