Muña says omicron sub-variant may possibly be here

Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther L. Muña said Tuesday that the omicron sub-variant that was confirmed over the weekend to be in Guam could possibly be here in the CNMI as well.

Speaking at the House of Representatives Health and Welfare Committee’s meeting in the House chamber, Muña said it does take a while for CHCC to receive the sequencing data to show whether or not that the omicron’s sub-variant is here. CHCC sends its samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for genome sequencing.

Muña said the omicron sub-variant BA-2 is more infectious and could be here because they are seeing several cases of quick transmissions.

Muna

It was committee chair Rep. Christina Marie E. Sablan (D-Saipan) who had asked Muña what they know about the omicron sub-variant that was just reported early this week to have been detected in Guam, and if it’s been also detected in the CNMI as well.

It was reported that the Joint Information Center confirmed that the latest set of COVID-19 virus samples sent from Guam to Hawaii for genome sequencing indicates the omicron sub-variant BA.2 is in Guam.

The omicron BA.2 is often referred to as “stealth” because it’s harder to detect. Although it’s not reported as more severe, BA.2 is more transmissible than the original omicron strain.

Muña, however, assured that they do have treatment for such sub-variant and even a new treatment that was just approved last Monday.

“So the allocations for the CNMI is coming. We’ll be ordering that. And all of them have been shown to be effective for this variant,” Muña said.

The CHCC CEO also underscored the importance of getting booster shots. “There’s already data showing that, as the months go by, you do see the effectiveness waning down. So we need to be able to try to encourage individuals that if you’re due for it [booster], you really do need to take it, get the vaccinations,” she added.

When asked how many CHCC staff have themselves been infected by COVID-19, Muña said 120 to 150 out of 900 employees have been infected since the beginning of the pandemic.

Muña said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already come out with a guidance on strategies to mitigate healthcare personnel staffing shortages during the pandemic, and that per CDC guidelines, CHCC can implement crisis staffing. By crisis staffing, she said, even if the staff are symptomatic and had tested positive for COVID-19, they can still work.

The CEO said they can’t just shut down a hospital department where employees are infected, because it’s a necessary department.

“Otherwise, CMS [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] will come around and say. ‘Why are you not providing this service?’ So that’s when crisis staffing takes effect,” Muña said.

When asked for clarification, Muña said Wednesday that she is not aware if they have employees who are symptomatic and are reporting for work.

“[I’m] just saying that, per CDC, if it comes to it, they can be allowed to work,” she said.