26 Jul 2020

CNMI reports new Covid-19 case

12:56 pm on 26 July 2020

An incoming passenger accounted yet again for the newest Covid-19 case in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas according to the government's Covid-19 taskforce.

Our correspondent said this brings the islands' total to 39 cases since its first case was reported on March 28.

The Covid-19 Task Force and the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation (CHCC) said the additional case was identified through incoming traveller screening and he or she is now safely isolated at the Kanoa Resort quarantine site and is being closely monitored.

The CHCC has already initiated contact tracing for the most additional immediate contacts (passengers on the same flight, close family members and friends) of the new confirmed case.

Of the total 39 confirmed cases, 16 cases (41%) have been identified through port of entry screening procedures, in accordance with the Governor Ralph DLG Torres' Executive Order, Directive 8.

Esther Muña

Esther Muña Photo: Supplied

If there's a silver lining though, even as the CNMI recorded its sixth new case in two weeks, CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muna noted that all coronavirus cases are from incoming passengers and no community transmission has occurred for nearly a month.

She said this indicates that the CNMI's containment procedures in preventing the spread of Covid-19 have so far been successful.