HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — On Christmas, the Joint Information Center reported some of the lowest numbers since the wave of the novel coronavirus washed over the island in August.
Members of the Guam National Guard’s Task Force Engineer and Surgeon Cell install the first of two BLU-MED tents outside the Guam Regional Medical City emergency room in Dededo on Nov. 2, 2020.
Photo courtesy of the Guam National Guard/ The Guam Daily Post
There are a total of 17 Covid-19 patients at local hospitals.
“It’s the lowest we’ve seen in a long time,” said Lillian Perez-Posadas, Guam Memorial Hospital administrator and chief executive officer. There are 15 Covid-19 patients at GMH.
“I’m still concerned the numbers will rise, although I’m hoping and praying it won’t,” she stated. “We just have to be prepared; thus, we still need to be vigilant and continue to wear masks, keep practicing social distancing and washing hands.”
The JIC also reported two new Covid-19 cases out of 141 tests conducted Thursday. That brings the total number of cases on Guam to 7,268 since testing started in March. There have been 121 deaths. There are 404 people in active isolation after testing positive for Covid-19, and 6,743 have completed isolation.
The island’s Covid-19 Area Risk Score is 1.3. The score has been tied to the governor’s easing of restrictions, although the island remains in Pandemic Condition of Readiness 1.
The CAR Score will be recalculated once reports from all participating labs are up to date, which typically happens on Mondays. The CAR Score accounts for the incidence of new cases, how well current testing identifies these cases, and the rate of spread. The ideal long-term goal is to sustain a CAR Score of 2.5 or less, which has been shown to correlate with very low to zero Covid-19-related hospitalizations and deaths.
Of the 15 patients at GMH, there are seven in the intensive care unit – three of those patients are on ventilators.
Guam Regional Medical City has two patients, neither of whom are in the ICU.
Naval Hospital Guam continues to report no Covid-19 patients.
At several points in the last few months, the Covid-19 census at the island’s hospitals neared 100 patients. GMH and GRMC increased bed capacity with BLU-MED tents to address the increase in hospitalizations.
GMH also worked with the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas, and other local and federal partners to renovate and add necessary power supplies to other areas of the hospital. The project converted 21 rooms, providing the capability to support hemodialysis and ventilator equipment. Seven of those rooms are capable of being negative pressure isolation rooms.
