No hard answer yet on when to shift from prevention to protection

The increasing number of COVID-19 infections from local transmission is prompting some people to ask: “At what point will we shift from preventing the spread to protecting against the spread?”

The cautious response to that is for everyone to remain guarded as more transmissible and deadly variants of COVID-19 may still emerge globally and CHCC chief executive officer Esther L. Muña advises to “wait until after the holidays” for any further updates on this subject.

During the question-and-answer portion of the Nov. 16 “CNMI Safe Travel Summit” at the Kensington Hotel Saipan, one of the questions raised was: “With the high rate of vaccinations [against COVID-19 in the CNMI], with the new treatments, with the success that we’ve had, and all the precautionary measures taken, at what point will we shift from preventing the spread [of COVID-19] to protecting against the spread”?

Muña said there have been discussions to treat COVID-19 as an endemic disease versus a pandemic one. “There’s a lot of discussions already being made about considering [COVID-19] as an endemic versus a pandemic, but we have to also be cautious because we don’t know [what] different variants can emerge,” said Muña.

She added that the millions of unvaccinated Americans remain a cause for concern, as it is through incoming arrivals that COVID-19 and multiple variants were brought to the CNMI. According to Our World in Data’s COVID-19 dashboard, 194 million Americans, or 58.8.% of the U.S.’ population, are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

“We still have a lot of unvaccinated individuals in the U.S. alone. …There is that concern, but there is a discussion to transition to an endemic. But again, we still have to be careful. …I would probably wait until after the holidays where we’ll probably see some information [by then on] whether we transition to an endemic and [focus on] protecting versus prevention,” Muña added.

According to Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the World Health Organization declares a pandemic when a disease’s growth is exponential, meaning that the growth rate skyrockets and case numbers grow more than the day prior.

An endemic would be a disease outbreak that is consistently present but limited to a particular region, making disease spread and rates predictable. Columbia, in its online definition, cited malaria as an example of an endemic. Other popular endemic examples found online include the flu and common cold.

The CNMI Office of the Governor, CHCC, and the Governor’s COVID-19 Task Force held the “CNMI Safe Travel Summit” to give a status report on the CNMI’s COVID-19 response and to announce changes to the CNMI’s COVID-19 quarantine policies effective Nov. 19 for domestic travelers. Many of the CNMI’s public and private stakeholders attended in person, with many others tuning in to a livestream of the summit on Facebook.

Effective Nov. 19, fully vaccinated travelers with proof of a fully vaccinated household will no longer need to quarantine. Fully vaccinated travelers with a household that is not verified to be fully vaccinated will have to quarantine at a designated site for five days, and unvaccinated travelers will have to quarantine at a designated site for seven days.

Fully vaccinated travelers will be tested on their fifth day since arriving on the CNMI, and unvaccinated travelers on their seventh day. If travelers fail to appear for their fifth or seventh-day testing, the traveler and the contacts they listed on their mandatory health declaration form will be contacted by CHCC.