HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam Memorial Hospital Administrator Lillian Perez-Posadas confirmed that GMH saw an uptick in COVID-19 cases in May, but said that number decreased slightly in June.
“When I took a look for the last two months, the month of May it was at 73, but it’s really coming down now. … June was 64,” Perez-Posadas said.
She added that about 200 GMH employees have tested positive for COVID since the start of the year.
“They were exposed out in the community. People are not wearing their masks out, so there are people who possibly have COVID-19 without symptoms … walking around and so the exposure is there out in the community,” Perez-Posadas said.
Dr. Robert Leon Guerrero, the chief medical officer at the Department of Public Health and Social Services and a GMH hospitalist, concurred with Perez-Posadas.
“In May, we did see an uptick. As we’ve said before, the public health emergency is gone, but not COVID-19. COVID-19 is going to be with us for a long, long time,” Leon Guerrero said. “We are going to see ups and downs like how we see with the flu. Flu is normally year-round, but in the months of August to November, we see an increase of influenza in Guam. So COVID-19 is going to be something like that.”
But what that pattern will be can’t be predicted, Leon Guerrero said, and for health officials, it’s wait and see.
“We are going to be getting into that endemic stage where we are going to see a baseline of COVID-19 cases and then we are going to see times of the year that we see an increase. I don’t know what time of the year that’s going to be,” Leon Guerrero said.
Causes of spike
Some of the increases can be attributed to Typhoon Mawar, the doctor told The Guam Daily Post.
“During the storm, when we didn’t have good water supply in some areas, we expect to see more of infections that you pass through hand contact and actually COVID-19 is just one of them,” Leon Guerrero said. “We had an uptick in influenza in June and we had uptick in some of these stomach viruses and stomach bacteria. So, again, we try to push sensible hygiene like washing hands, keeping distance and, if you’re sick, try not to expose yourself to people who are not sick.”
But the increase also is related to people returning to pre-COVID-19 “normal” life.
“People are tired, I’m tired, … because we’ve been talking about it since 2019. People … go from being really good and cautious, washing their hands, wearing their masks – or it’s the other end of the spectrum, where it’s ‘so what’ kind of attitude, so people are not washing their hands,” Leon Guerrero said.
Leon Guerrero, who is a pediatrician, shared what he has seen happening with COVID-19 among children.
“(From) 2019 up to 2021, kids, when they got sick, they rarely got sick unless they had some underlying issue. … But starting last year, we saw more children getting admitted. … We had (admissions with) COVID-19, bronchitis,” Leon Guerrero said.
Leon Guerrero said more than 90% of children exposed to COVID-19 had mild to no symptoms. But, in some cases, the severity of the disease has resulted in increased hospital admissions.
“Currently, we have two children in the pediatric intensive care who have COVID-19. Last month, we had a 5-month-old who died from COVID-19, so we are seeing an increase in severity in kids, But, overall, COVID-19 infections in children still remain mild or no symptoms at all,” he said.
Vaccinations
He said the infections are occurring, in part, because people aren’t taking advantage of the vaccines available.
“When the typhoon hit, we lost our supply of COVID-19 vaccinations, but last week we got back a supply of COVID vaccines. And, by the way, they are still free,” Leon Guerrero said.
The pediatrician said vaccination helps combat the illness, and noted that although it is free right now, come September it may no longer be.
A person enters Guam Memorial Hospital May 7, 2023. GMH saw an uptick in COVID-19 cases in May, but that number decreased slightly in June.
