FIVE travelers were confirmed positive for Covid-19 on Friday, bringing the CNMI’s total number of cases to 181 since March 28, 2020, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. said.
CHCC spokesman Guillermo C. Lifoifoi said the five individuals were identified by travel screening at the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport and confirmed diagnosis through fifth-day testing and testing on arrival on May 20, 2021.
The individuals have been moved to the designated isolation area for close monitoring.
In addition, the CHCC Communicable Disease Investigation/Inspection team has already initiated contact tracing for the most immediate contacts of the new confirmed cases, including passengers on the same flight.
The CHCC Covid-19 dashboard shows that of the 181 cases, 145 were tested via travel screening, 11 via community-based and 25 via contact tracing.
Of the travelers who tested positive, 88 were from the U.S., 37 from a U.S. territory and 20 from a foreign country.
CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther Muna said during a press briefing on KKMP radio Friday that of the latest cases, only one was fully vaccinated.
She also said that Guam and CNMI have an arrangement in ensuring that the vaccine verification of travelers between the two jurisdictions is acceptable.
The CNMI, she said, accepts Guam’s verification record; Guam, in turn, accepts the CNMI’s.
Those who are traveling to Guam from the CNMI can obtain their vaccine record at CHCC so that they don’t have to be quarantined on Guam, Muna said.
She encourages those traveling to the CNMI from Guam to take the first step which is to verify their vaccine record. She also encourages everyone “to please register ahead of time — at least three days before arrival to ensure that all verifications are done.”
Muna said as of Friday, 57% of the CNMI’s eligible population had been vaccinated against Covid-19.
On Guam, the Joint Information Center stated that as of Saturday, there had been a total of 8,132 officially reported cases of Covid-19 with 139 deaths, 99 cases in active isolation, and 7,894 not in active isolation.
