‘No community spread of delta variant in CNMI’

The CNMI Office of the Governor—alongside the Governor’s COVID-19 Task Force and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.—is urging the community to stop spreading misinformation about a recent WhatsApp message that is claiming that the delta variant is already on Saipan and is advising children to stay home. The CNMI’s health policy leaders clarified that these claims are false.

Also, COVID-19 Task Force chair Warren Villagomez said the government-run quarantine site at Mariana Resort & Spa has not been shut down; it remains on standby and fully ready for government use if needed.

In a public advisory published on Wednesday, the CNMI’s health policy leaders assured that they will always inform the community if there is a confirmed case of COVID-19 within the CNMI, and that the CNMI has the “tools and personnel in place to safeguard our community.”

Additionally, the advisory reminded the community that WhatsApp messages and social media posts that are not directly from the task force or CHCC are unauthorized, untrue, and unverified. “The spread of misinformation can be more dangerous than the virus itself. The CNMI is reminded to only share verified, official information from the Task Force and CHCC,” said the public advisory.

In related news, three more incoming travelers were confirmed positive for COVID-19, according to the CHCC. The individuals were identified by travel screening and confirmed through fifth-day and arrival testing on Aug. 24. The individuals have been quarantined, and are being monitored. The cases bring the CNMI’s total to 232 cases.

CHCC also reported Wednesday that there is currently one active hospitalization related to COVID-19.

As for the quarantine sites, Villagomez explained that the decision to put the Mariana Resort & Spa on standby was made in response to the recent influx of incoming travelers from the United States and Asia, after United Airlines began offering flights to Saipan every day at the start of this month. To avoid an overflow in Mariana Resort’s limited room capacity, the task force shifted its priorities toward Saipan’s larger-capacity hotels.

Currently, incoming travelers are required to quarantine at either the Kanoa Resort Saipan or Pacific islands Club Saipan quarantine sites.

“Mariana Resort is still identified as a government quarantine site if needed. If we need to activate it, it can still be used, but all passengers are going to PIC and Kanoa. We didn’t close [the MR site] down because there’s something wrong with it. It’s because we don’t have the [room] capacity with the number of flights that we’re getting on a daily basis,” said Villagomez.

Citing upcoming holidays and more shifts in the CNMI’s quarantine measures, Villagomez expects even larger influxes of incoming travelers in the future.

“Of course, anticipating upcoming holidays [and] shifts in our quarantine measures, there’s a lot of factors that we’re factoring in. We want to make sure that we have ample room for our inbound to protect our community from, any spread of [COVID-19] on-island,” said Villagomez.