Guam will officially transition to Pandemic Condition of Readiness 3 beginning 8 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 22, allowing more businesses and activities to resume operations under moderately restricted conditions.
Nightlife on Guam will resume on Wednesday, Feb 24, with the reopening of bars and taverns at a 50 percent capacity limit.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero noted that a number of bar owners had hopes that they could open this weekend. The reopening will follow the Department of Public Health and Social Service's guidance that had been developed in cooperation with the Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association.”
Although more restrictions will be lifted, the governor reminded the community to continue practicing public safety measures such as wearing of masks, social distancing, proper hygiene and staying home when sick.
"Do not relax those measures," she said.
The governor said the 50 percent limit for restaurants and 75 percent limit for stores and retail establishments will remain in place until Guam moves to PCOR 4.
The next step, according to the governor, is to review the quarantine protocols that apply to all travelers.
"Tourism will be successful when all our other markets are available. Negative PCR tests are the only requirement and proof of vaccination has not been discussed," the governor said.
Based on the government's guidelines, moving Guam to PCOR 3 requires downward trend of confirmed Covid-19 cases and a downward trend of positive tests as a percent of total tests over a 28-day period, utilizing a five-day rolling average.
Tests results over the past week have shown a daily average of 2.7 positive cases.
The Joint Information Center reported two cases out of 403 tests performed on Wednesday, Feb. 17. One case reported recent travel history and was identified in quarantine.
To date, there have been a total of 7,705 officially reported cases of Covid-19 with 130 deaths, 47 cases in active isolation, and 7,528 not in active isolation.
Hospital admission is down to six, easing the patient volume that burdened the Guam Memorial Hospital during the later part of 2020.
One of the conditions for moving to PCOR 3 is that Guam hospitals "continue to be able to treat all inpatients without resorting to alternate standards of care due to Covid-19 cases."
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Other conditions for PCOR 3 are as follows:
-Guam continues to have the capacity to test all people with Covid-19 symptoms and the availability and affordability of rapid and reliable testing of travelers as it relates to quarantine requirements; and
- The DPHSS continues to have the capacity to conduct adequate monitoring of all COVID-19 cases and tracings of their contacts