Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero
While imposing new restrictions amid the resurgence of the Covid-19 crisis on Guam, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said she has no plans to revert the island to Pandemic Condition of Readiness 2.
“I’ll continue on with the PCOR 3 and we’ll see what happens,” she said. “We’re instituting restrictions to help us again strengthen our preventive measures. We’re being proactive. The decision we’ve made is appropriate for the situation right now.”
When asked during Friday’s press conference what she would have done differently, the governor defended her administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With guidance from (the Department of Public Health and Social Services), with guidance from the physicians advisory group, and with looking at science and data, and with looking at what other people are doing, what we have done is amazing,” Leon Guerrero said.
The governor was earlier criticized by the medical community for her initial plan to reopen tourism on July 1 and for lifting quarantine requirement for travelers from some Asian countries. The plan was subsequently recalled.
To date, there have been a total of 412 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with five deaths, 321 released from isolation, and 86 active cases. Of those cases, 363 are classified as civilians and 49 are military service members.
Guam’s response to the crisis, she added, is “actually much more progressive than any other states and any other countries in that we acted fast.”
“We instituted our directives. And most of all our community has been very compliant in following the mitigation efforts we’re doing,” she added.
The governor attributed the increase in Covid-19 positive cases to expanded community testing.
“We’ve always said once we test more people, we’ll see and catch more positives which is want to do,” she said. “It’s exactly what we want to do so we can redirect our mitigation efforts so we can prevent more increases in exposure and infection and so forth. I think we’ve done a lot.”
Leon Guerrero defended the government’s strategies.
“I’m not going to say we’ve done everything because I’m sure there’s something we can do. All the protocols we’ve put in place, all the policies we’ve put in place, all the programs we’ve put in place are working,” she said.
Through the expanded testing, she added, the government was able to catch more positive cases from the quarantine, including asymptomatic individuals.
“What we’re doing now is exactly what any prudent government would do in protecting the safety and health of our people,” the governor said. “It’s exactly the right course we’re looking at where are the links—what can we do to mitigate more efforts into the links of these contact tracings. What could’ve we done better? I don’t know. Discover a vaccine.”
