Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero today reported the 10th Covid-19-related death on Guam and warned that more fatalities may be anticipated unless the spread of the virus slows down.
The 10th Covid-19 casualty was a 96-year-old woman, who was pronounced dead on arrival at the Guam Memorial Hospital.
The governor said all staff employees at the emergency room tested for Covid-19 and the results returned positive.
As of Wednesday night, Guam had 1,120 confirmed cases. Over 700 of this number were reported in August alone.
“This represents nearly 70 percent of our total confirmed cases since this pandemic began in March. Our active cases now surpasses the number of patients released from isolation—a statistic we have not seen in months.
Two Covid patients died the day before; they died five minutes apart.
The governor said Guam's limited health care system will not be able to handle further surge in Covid-19 cases.
“At this very moment, while grieving for the loss of one of their own, our GMH nurses and doctors are treating 26 patients for Covid-19. Hospitalization rates have drastically increased, and hospitalization is not limited to our elderly. Just last week, we had our youngest Covid-related death at 34 years old,” the governor said.
Unless the community can dramatically slow the spread of the coronavirus, “more people will die from this virus. Worse yet, people will die simply because we do not have the bed space or medical staff to treat anything but a rising tide of Covid-19 patients .
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The governor has signed a new executive order extending the Public Health Emergency to Sept. 30. Executive Order 2020-29 will also extend the stay-at-home order until noon on Sept. 4.
In response to critics who were protesting the lockdown order, the governor said, “We live in a free society. We have rights but we also have responsibilities. Every time we willfully violate a public health order, every time we refuse to wear a mask, every time we downplay the danger of Covid-19 we dishonor those who sacrifice for us each day.
“More and more I’ve realized that adversity introduces us to our true selves. It tests our core values. It makes us prove what we truly believe in. At its best, Guam’s spirit is about ‘we’ not “me.” We survive—we thrive even—because we know deep down that “we are all in together” always works better than “you are on your own.”