The number of people admitted into the Guam Memorial Hospital for Covid-19 has surged to 50, with 14 occupying intensive care unit beds -- three patients away from hitting full capacity.
GMH administrator Lilian Posadas earlier said GMH had a total of 17 beds for ICU patients, including the seven beds recently added on the third floor. She said 14 beds on the second floor have been partitioned between “non-Covid ICU and Covid ICU.” As of last week, 10 Covid-19 patients were reportedly on ventilators.
On Tuesday, the Joint Information Center reported 43 new confirmed cases from samples tested between Sept. 4 and 7.
To date, there have been a total of 1,713 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 19 deaths, 951 not in isolation, and 743 cases in active isolation. Of those cases, 1,472 are classified as civilians and 241 are military service members.
Other private clinics that provided tests with positive results were are American Medical Center, One Love Pediatrics and Guam Radiology Consultants.
On Saturday, the Joint Information Center reported 51 confirmed cases.
A follow-up positive test was previously reported as a positive case in error and was removed from the overall count.
Thirty-five cases were identified through contact tracing. Two cases reported recent travel from the U.S. and were identified in quarantine.
At the Port Authority of Guam, general manager Rory J. Respicio reported Tuesday that another employee tested positive for Covid-19.
"We immediately began contact tracing for employees who were potentially exposed," Respicio said.
"Our team identified 4 exposures and those employees were contacted and sent for testing today at the Department of Public Health and Social Services.As of this afternoon, two test results were returned and both of them were negative for Covid-19 and we are waiting the test results for the other two employees," he added..
In total, the Port has identified six Cvid-positive employees. The Port's internal Port Contact Tracing Team has identified 294 close contacts and coordinated testing for all who were exposed. Three of the six positive employees have already been released from isolation.
"The Port continues to take every precaution necessary to combat Covid-19 including daily deep cleaning and sanitizing of the facility, the installation of hand washing and sanitizing stations and the establishment of the Port Clinic.," Respicio said.
"In addition, we have stood up our Port Contact Tracing Team and members are now certified contact tracers through the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and they respond immediately when a positive case is confirmed. The team traces all potential exposures and coordinates all testing via DPHSS for Port employees. The Port continues to work closely with DPHSS Acting Director Arthur U. San Agustin and Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Suzanne Kaneshiro on all of our efforts.”