EFFECTIVE Friday, Nov. 19, the CNMI will implement new Covid-19 travel protocols that will, among other things, remove the quarantine requirement for some fully vaccinated individuals upon arrival.
In a presentation at the CNMI Safe Travels Summit at Kensington Hotel on Tuesday morning, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna said the new rules are still in line with the guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Quarantine will be unnecessary for fully vaccinated individuals residing in a fully vaccinated household, she said.
For an unvaccinated household, however, quarantine will be required for five days, while unvaccinated travelers will be required to quarantine for seven days, she added.
Muna said travelers with households that have at least one individual who is ineligible for the vaccine will be made aware that the ineligible member cannot go out into the community.
Travelers must still fill out a mandatory health declaration form, which includes a section where close contacts must be listed, prior to entry into the CNMI.
They will also be required to upload their vaccination cards into the system, unless they were vaccinated in the CNMI, in which case their card is already in the system.
A new team has been assembled to verify vaccination cards, inclusive of a secondary level of verification, which Muna said is intended to combat potential fraudulent cards.
“We don’t want to quarantine you if we don’t need to quarantine you, so we need to get to the [required] information. If you can’t provide it, we can make the [calls] for you [to verify your information],” Muna said.
Travelers will still be required to be tested for Covid-19 upon the fifth day of their arrival.
Should a traveler fail to appear for fifth-day testing, they will be contacted, along with the close contacts they have listed on their mandatory health declaration form.
Testing upon arrival will not be conducted so as to focus on community-based testing and contact tracing.
Travelers who transit through Japan to Guam are not considered international travelers.
As for travelers who arrived prior to these changes taking effect, they will be released from quarantine on Friday, Nov. 19.
Muna noted that Public Law 13-63 grants the CNMI government the authority to provide care, treatment, and vaccination to persons who are ill or who have been exposed to contagious diseases, and to separate affected individuals from the population at large to interrupt disease transmission.
She said the CNMI intends to strengthen its testing strategy to close the gap in contact tracing, and continue its current vaccination push for booster shots as well as the pediatric vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds.
Community transmission
In a separate presentation, Stephanie Kern-Allely, MPH, regional communicable disease epidemiologist at Pacific Island Health Officers’ Association, discussed the level of community transmission and the Covid-19 vaccination coverage in the community, as well as the islands’ healthcare system capacity.
Kern-Allely said in Palau, which has no community cases, an inbound traveler must be fully vaccinated and provide a negative Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test within three days prior to departure, or provide valid documentation of recovery from Covid-19.
In Palau, travelers must submit to Covid-19 testing upon arrival and after the fifth day. Their movements are also restricted for the first five days of their arrival.
As a result of these measures, Palau has reported a total of eight positive Covid-19 cases, all of which were identified through travel screening.
Kern-Allely said travel quarantine is an effective strategy to reduce the introduction of Covid-19 into the CNMI.
She said Covid-19 transmission is low in the CNMI, which has a high vaccine coverage rate.
Moreover, layered prevention strategies protect travelers, the community and businesses, Kern-Allely said.
Positive cases
As of Tuesday, Nov. 16, there had been 108 new cases of which 75 were identified via contact tracing, 24 through community testing, and nine through travel testing since Oct. 28.
There were 49 active cases but no hospitalizations from these new cases.
Since March 28, 2020, the CNMI has reported a total of 399 positive Covid-19 cases and three deaths.
Of these positive cases, 264 were identified through travel and 135 through community screening.
Kern-Allely said although testing cannot exactly tell when someone might have been infected, symptoms are a pretty good indicator of when a person had contracted the virus.
She noted that the CNMI is seeing a reduction in transmission.
Some community cases that are not linked to major clusters have also been identified, mainly through household transmission, she said.
However, she added, some clusters have also been identified in workplaces, one school, and a community contact.
Cases have only been detected on Saipan, with no community cases detected thus far on Rota and Tinian.
There have been no hospitalizations and no Covid-19-related deaths since the recent community transmission.
There was, however, one Covid-19 case that was admitted to the hospital for precautionary observation.
Community-based testing is at adequate levels and positivity is low, with the average positivity rate at 0.37%.
The CNMI is at a low to moderate level of community transmission, Kern-Allely reiterated.
She said the CNMI saw a spike in community-based testing just a day after the announcement of community transmission, with more community members getting vaccinated with either their first dose, second dose, or booster shot.
As for the recent community cases, CHCC CEO Muna said the suspected origin was the port of entry, but vaccinations may have prevented further spread.
She said vaccinations have also prevented severe illnesses and hospitalizations.
Effective
The CNMI also saw an increase in its vaccination rate on the day that the initial doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds first arrived in the Commonwealth.
Kern-Allely said credible data have shown that Covid-19 vaccines are effective in reducing the risk of severe disease, hospitalization and death.
Data showed that it is 11 times greater for unvaccinated people to die from Covid-19 than those who are fully vaccinated in the U.S.
Moreover, it is 12 times higher for unvaccinated people to be hospitalized for Covid-19 than the vaccinated.
Covid-19 vaccines, Kern-Allely added, are extremely effective in protecting individuals from catching and spreading the virus, but no vaccine provides 100% immunity.
For the small percentage of vaccinated people who experience breakthrough cases, or cases in which a person tests negative in one instance then tests positive upon re-testing, they are much more likely to be mild.
Kern-Allely said the local healthcare system capacity has also increased since the start of the pandemic, with more care sites and treatment options now available.
As of 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 84.4% of the eligible CNMI population, or 42,388 individuals, had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
For more information on the CNMI’s Covid-19 response, visit www.staysafecnmi.com
Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna on Tuesday presents information on the CNMI’s Covid-19 response as Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, Covid-19 Task Force Chairman Warren Villagomez and epidemiologist Stephanie Kern-Allely listen during the CNMI Safe Travels Summit at Kensington Hotel on Tuesday.
