GOVERNOR Ralph DLG Torres, together with CNMI Covid-19 Task Force Chairman Warren Villagomez and Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna, will host a CNMI Safe Travel Summit today, Tuesday, Nov. 16 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Kensington Hotel to announce updated CNMI travel protocols that align with the Biden administration’s mandate regarding international travelers.
This new federal policy took effect on Nov. 8, requiring international travelers entering the U.S. to be fully vaccinated.
The task force and CHCC will also provide an overview of the ongoing Covid-19 response.
The administration said the updated policy builds upon the CNMI’s existing travel bubble program, which officials describe as “stringent, adaptive, and guided by public health measures.”
The goal is to revitalize the local economy while protecting the health and safety of CNMI residents.
“[The new federal travel policy] is applicable across the nation, so it’s our obligation to fulfill that mandate,” Torres said on Friday.
“You need to be vaccinated. That’s a very big point because we can’t stop airlines from coming in…. We want to be accommodating to welcome our business partners coming in and our tourists. At the same time, we still need to look at what can we do to safeguard our community,” he added.
“We need our community to understand that the [pandemic] is going to be here [for a while]…. And we have things like [this] mandate to open up our borders [to international travelers] if they’re vaccinated. Those are the things that we don’t have control over,” he said.
What the CNMI does have control over, the governor added, is having its eligible population vaccinated.
“We can go to our family members, our friends, our neighbors, our business partners and say, ‘Guys, you need to get vaccinated. It’s to protect everybody individually,’” the governor said.
