HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam’s federal travel risk rating went from “moderate” to “high” because of an increase in the number of new Covid-19 cases, while the Covid-19 Area Risk Score, or CAR Score, reached a record high of 8.8 for the year, but Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said public schools will open on Thursday as scheduled.
The governor called for more vaccinations and testing, as well as back-to-basic approaches to stop the further spread of the virus, such as washing hands, social distancing, and wearing a mask.
There were 44 new Covid-19 cases out of 764 tested on Monday alone, while hospital admissions stayed at seven patients with one remaining in the intensive care unit, according to Joint Information Center data reported Tuesday night.
Of the 44 new cases, 16 were vaccinated.
The hospital admissions involved unvaccinated individuals.
The governor said she “expected” the “reasonable risks,” or the increases in cases, associated with lifting more pandemic restrictions.
“But we are keeping a close eye on it and, like I said, if we have to return to some restrictive measures, we will do that for the protection of the people,” she said during an in-person press conference at the governor’s office before meeting her cabinet members.
The difference between last year and this year, the governor said, is the availability of vaccines that keep the number of hospitalizations relatively low.
“The hospital admission is the more critical part here because the whole purpose of that effort is to prevent from getting sick. We make sure we are able to continue to manage people when they are sick,” she said.
She reiterated that, should the situation escalate, she would bring back restrictions such as limiting social gatherings and business occupancy limits, but wouldn’t confirm if the threshold to take such actions is a CAR Score of at least 10.
New school year
Thousands of public school students will return to face-to-face classes on Thursday, at a time when vaccination among those ages 12 to 17 remains almost 47%, or 7,617 children.
“Schools right now are on track to open,” the governor said. “We have expected this rise. We know that when you start relaxing restrictions, people will socially gather more freely, (and) travel restrictions are relaxed although we still have protective measures.”
Overall, there are still 31,664 minors and adults on Guam who are eligible to receive the vaccine but have so far not been fully vaccinated.
Some, like Ha’ani Fejeran, 22, her mother and two sisters, just got their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week.
“This is the only time we can all go together and get vaccinated,” she said, adding that their father also will get vaccinated.
‘This is temporary’
As new cases and hospitalizations increased, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed Guam’s travel risk rating from “moderate” to “high” on Monday.
The Level 3 ranking means CDC is advising travelers to make sure they are fully vaccinated before traveling to Guam.
“Unvaccinated travelers should avoid nonessential travel to these destinations,” the CDC said.
This comes at a time when the Guam Visitors Bureau is trying to entice tourists from its main markets of South Korea, Japan and Taiwan to visit once again after the travel disruptions that the pandemic caused. Travelers to Guam the past year were mostly military personnel and returning residents.
“GVB is disappointed with the latest travel risk rating for Guam, but we’re optimistic that this is temporary,” GVB Vice President Gerry Perez said. “We are focused on containment protocols and taking care of our local residents and visitors.”
Perez said as GVB works on the recovery of the island’s tourism industry, “we continue to remind everyone to practice safety measures to protect their family, friends, and colleagues.”
The CDC travel risk assessment has four levels, with Level 4 being “very high.”
Guam previously was placed on Level 4, but hasn’t been placed on Level 1, or “low,” since the pandemic started.
The last time CDC changed Guam’s travel risk rating was in early June, going from “very high” to “moderate,” an improvement by two tiers.
Since then, Guam saw fewer new positive cases and most of the time zero hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients. Asian tourists have been returning slowly, starting with Taiwanese travelers mostly visiting because of GVB’s Air V&V, or vaccination and vacation, program.
Also, 80% of Guam’s adults were vaccinated as of July 29, leading to the lifting of most pandemic restrictions except mainly for the mask mandate.
Around that time, however, Guam saw a jump in the number of new cases and hospitalizations went up to seven with two cared for in the intensive care unit, even as worrisome variants were confirmed on the island.
The increases were seen in the military and civilian communities, leading to Guam’s CAR Score jumping to 8.8 on Tuesday, after being mostly under 1.0 for the past several months.
The governor has mandated that most government of Guam employees should be fully vaccinated.
As of Aug. 9, a total of 104,629 people, or 76.77% of Guam’s vaccine-eligible population, had received the required doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson, JIC reported Tuesday night.
Sisters Gwen Afaisen and Carmen Aquigui made sure their families were fully vaccinated on Aug. 10 at the Southern Region Community Health Center in Inalåhan, Guam. From left, Nik Afaisen, seen on the phone held by his mom Gwen Afaisen; her daughter Giavanni Mendiola; Carmen’s son Cristian Pinaula; Carmen’s daughter, Camryn Aguigui; and Carmen Aguigui.
