ROTA Mayor Efraim Atalig on Friday asked health officials why on-arrival Covid-19 testing was scrapped amid the rise in cases.
Dr. Lily Muldoon, medical director of public health and emergency medicine physician of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., said instead of focusing on the borders, “we decided to… focus on helping to contain the spread in our community.”
She added, “I can see why [this] was a surprise for some people because it was a change in what we were doing so aggressively before with stopping the spread at the borders, and we did that…for so long, but by the time that we had such a significant amount of community spread, it no longer mattered…to [contain the spread at] the borders.”
Effective Tuesday, Feb. 8, all travelers entering the CNMI by air or sea were no longer tested on arrival.
According to CHCC and the Governor’s Covid-19 Task Force, surveillance at the border is not the best predictor of the impact Covid-19 has on the CNMI’s healthcare system. Instead, they said the CNMI will shift to focus on medically significant community infections.
However, current CNMI Covid-19 protocols still require unvaccinated travelers to quarantine at home for at least five days. They are also required to get tested at a community-based testing site five days after their arrival.
If the traveler receives a positive result, the traveler must isolate for an additional five full days.
For inbound travelers whose final destination is either Rota or Tinian, their fifth-day test may be scheduled at their respective final destination’s health center.
For more information, go to www.staysafecnmi.com
For a guidebook on how to live Covid-19 safe, visit www.staysafecnmi.com/livecovidsafe
Dr. Lily Muldoon, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. medical director of public health, speaks during the CNMI Covid-19 Protocol Forum on Friday at Kensington Hotel.
