The Center for Disease Control's new travel warning advises travelers to avoid "nonessential travel" to Guam.
"Travelers at increased risk for severe illness from Covid-19 should consider postponing all travel, including essential travel to Guam," CDC said.
Noting that "Covid-19 risk in Guam is high," CDC warned travelers that, "If you get sick in Guam and need medical care, resources may be limited."
"Some examples of essential travel may include traveling for humanitarian aid work, medical reasons, or family emergencies," CDC said.
CDC specifically advised older adults, people of any age with certain underlying medical conditions, and others at increased risk for severe illness to consider postponing all travel plans.
As of Aug. 7, Guam had 411 Covid-19 cases.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said Friday Guam is still implementing the same protocols for arriving passengers.
Guam was originally scheduled to reopen July 1 after the governor moved the island to Pandemic Condition of Readiness 3 but due to a sudden spike in numbers, the plan has been postponed indefinitely.
“Right now Japan isn’t very interested in traveling,” said Leon Guerrero. “As you know, their increases in positive cases is doubling. If you’re tracking Honolulu, Honolulu tripled their positive cases. They’re also thinking of lockdowns. This point of time, it’s not their priority. We’re working with Japan and our Japan market agents and the government there to have a international travel relationship. They require quarantine of their returning residents an that’s a deterrent to traveling.”
The governor said contact tracing has been enhanced with additional 30 people for tracing and surveillance. “Our testing capacity is also increasing to ensure people are traced and tested quickly and efficiently. Announcements of future community testing outreaches will be made once confirmed,” she said. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] She said the identification of affected clusters can help the government have better control, better tracking and tracing of the individuals who tested positive for Covid-19."
"What we’re seeing in terms of increase in numbers, right now it doesn’t impact or change any directions and strategies toward looking at welcoming our visitors," the governor said. "Protocols remains the same because I believe our protocols are very safe in terms of visitors and community safety.”
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