Public Health has activated its emergency operations center three weeks ago in response to an alert from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following the outbreak of the dreaded influenza virus in Mexico and the United States.
The CNMI remains on Phase 5 of the pandemic alert.
Passengers were seen disembarking from an aircraft at 11 a.m. yesterday, but there was no screening being conducted.
Commonwealth Ports Authority Executive Director Efrain F. Camacho said they were expecting a notification from Public Health yesterday regarding a health screening desk in the immigration area.
Public Health program analyst, Roxanne Diaz said as part of the precautionary measures, they were supposed to set up the health desk yesterday afternoon.
But they needed more time for further planning and development of materials that they will use in informing the arriving passengers about the screening.
She said they still have to translate the content of the materials into Japanese, Chinese and other foreign languages.
Diaz said the only device they may use when screening passengers is a thermometer and the staff they will deploy to the airport will be from the Bureau of Environmental Health.
She does not think that deploying nurses to the airport is necessary at this time.
For his part, Camacho said the absence of a health screening area does not disappoint him.
He said they need to be sensible when dealing with the visitors and not create panic or any inconvenience.
“There is no point of overreacting to this situation,” he said.
