Muña: Agreement with Guam only about COVID-19 vaccination records

An agreement between the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and Guam’s Department of Public Health and Social Services was not meant for travelers to skip quarantine, but to accept immunization records from each jurisdiction that validates travelers’ COVID-19 vaccination status.

This was clarified by CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña, who said in a phone interview that the agreement that DPHSS director Arthur San Agustin and she signed was intended to validate each jurisdiction’s COVID-19 vaccination records. The agreement was signed last May 27.

The validation will allow fully vaccinated Guam travelers coming to the CNMI to be quarantined in a household setting—a bubble of fully vaccinated household members. As for Saipan residents traveling to Guam, the agreement says an individual must present their CNMI Immunization Registry Official Immunization Record upon arrival and could be exempt from quarantine.

“With a responsibility to protect the people of the CNMI, travelers coming into the CNMI must meet the requirements of the CNMI and not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. …CDC states that all over in their website—check and follow requirements of the states and territories,” said Muña.

Since the CNMI still has a significant number of unvaccinated residents and Guam continues to have COVID-19 cases within the community, Muña said there is still infection risk for unvaccinated individuals to transmit COVID-19 to others—and they can still do that even if they are already fully vaccinated.

Muña said the CNMI has not identified any community case for several days now. According to Saipan Tribune archives, the last community case was last March 15, when a total of 10 individuals were identified as a community cluster of COVID-19 cases, according to a Governor’s COVID-19 Task Force statement. This includes the 147th case on March 12; 148th, 149th, and 150th cases on March 13; 151st, 152nd, 153rd, and 154th cases on March 14; and then the 155th and 156th cases last March 15.

Travelers from CNMI going into Guam

In the CHCC-DPHSS agreement, it says that passengers who are fully vaccinated in the CNMI and are arriving in Guam are to present their photo identification (e.g. passport, driver’s license, state-issued identification) along with their CNMI Immunization Registry Official Immunization Record upon arrival and they could be exempt from quarantine.

The agreement also says that the acceptance of both immunization records are to take effect on May 27, which will remain in effect until: 1, the expiration of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, or 2, the DPHSS director or Muña rescinds or modifies this order based on specific public health or other considerations.

To be considered fully vaccinated, an individual must wait two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine.

COVID-19 incentive

The E-Land Group is offering its first COVID-19 vaccination incentives with a raffle for a one-night stay with breakfast for two persons at the Kensington Hotel Saipan in San Roque and two golf vouchers for 18-hole round at the Coral Ocean Golf Resort in Koblerville.

The raffle is open to all individuals who complete their first dose by June 5, 2021. Those who have received their first, or both, doses are automatically inputted into the raffle.

CHCC and E-Land will draw names on June 7. As of press time, it’s not announced how many names will be drawn from the raffle.

To register to get vaccinated, individuals can go to vaccinatecnmi.com or call 682-7468(SHOT).