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Temporary closure of daycare centers, before- and after-school programs, infant & toddler programs
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Posted on Mar 15 2021
The Child Care Licensing Program is directing all centers it licenses to shut down all child care services and child care programs operation effectively immediately and ending March 19, 2021.
This end date could still change, though. According to a memorandum from the Child Care Licensing Program, the 14-day pause will give the program enough time to assess the situation arising from the recent identification of four new COVID-19 cases in the CNMI—all of them community transmission cases—and determine whether or not to extend the closure period.
This comes soon after the CNMI COVID-19 Task Force identified last Friday, March 12, 2021, one individual who tested positive through community screening for travel. A day after, three more individuals were confirmed positive for COVID-19 via contact tracing. Later in the evening of Saturday, at about 7:50pm, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, through KSPN2 News, confirmed that the first case is a front-line worker who has already been vaccinated. This all means there is community-based spread happening in the CNMI. That prompted the CNMI Public School System to suspend all in-person classes for the next 14 days or until further notice and activate full remote learning instructions in the meantime.
CCLP supervisor Gordon B. Sodas said in the memorandum that the program’s priority is ensuring the health, safety, and wellbeing of all children and is implementing the temporary closure of day care centers and group child care homes, before and after school programs, family child care homes, and infant and toddler programs in an abundance of caution and in support of the renewed declaration of the state of public health emergency in the CNMI.
The program is under the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Office. (Saipan Tribune)
