Education Commissioner Rita H. Sablan said the task force is closely collaborating with the Commonwealth Health Center and public health officials to ensure that students, teachers and other faculty members are prepared to protect themselves against H1N1.
Health officials earlier sounded alarm bells the CNMI is not spared from the virus as the islands constantly welcome off-island guests, particularly from Japan where H1N1 had affected hundreds of people.
“We are preparing ourselves to ensure even our staff and school personnel because we currently have a summer program going on,” Sablan said.
Starting this school-year, PSS will immediately send home students or any school personnel showing symptoms of H1N1 infection.
Sablan said this measure should protect others from being exposed to the virus, thus, prevent the spread of infection.
“This is a serious health concern,” she said.
Only two cases of H1N1 virus have been confirmed in the CNMI. The nearby island of Guam has 16 cases with one death, thus far.
Palau has 13 reported H1N1 cases and more than a dozen other island-nations in the Pacific Region have also been infected by the virus.
Manageable
Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said the confirmed H1N1 cases in commonwealth are in a “manageable” level and there’s nothing to cause for alarm.
There’s no need even to quarantine those officials and other CNMI residents who return home from country where H1N1 alert is on high level, he added
But the public health office is consistently monitoring the possible spread of the virus, he added.
Variety learned that immigration and custom personnel are not even implementing any precautionary measure against inbound passengers, especially those coming from places where H1N1 cases are prevalent.
The immigration division will only depend on the public health official’s advisory to conduct health screening at the airport as what they did during the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Dr. Richard Brostrom, director of the Commonwealth Health Center, said they are prepared to address the spread of the virus.
“We have been working with the community to minimize the spread of this (H1N1) and any kind of flu in the CNMI,” Brostrom said in a press conference.”
No school nurses
Since 2009 began, Sablan said PSS already collaborated with CHC and have created a group that will closely work with health officials to ensure that PSS is monitoring the wellness of its student population, staff and everyone in the school.”
“We want the people to be more cautious on what’s going on and we have to protect our staff,” she said.
The PSS, she added, has already disseminated flyers and posters about some precautionary measures to protect an individual from the virus like observing basic proper hygiene.
Sablan said they haven’t received any report from school about symptoms of H1N1 virus but PSS will continue to monitor it.
In the absence of school nurses, PSS is tapping its personnel and school staff to report any indication of swine flu virus to the public health office, Sablan added.
