By Eric Rosario
It's been a scary day for seaport employees.
The Port Authority of Guam issued successive news releases alerting the public that two more employees tested positive for COVID-19, and ensuring the public that despite the latest outbreak, the other employees will continue operations.
"The Port’s Contact Tracing Team immediately began tracing the case and identified 11 Port employees who may have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus as late as Wednesday of last week. Those individuals have all been notified and will be tested by the Department of Public Health and Social Services this coming Friday." - news release from the seaport
According to seaport officials, the eleventh and twelfth employees who have tested positive have left the work site. Cleaning, quarantine, and contact tracing protocols began immediately.
The 11th case was identified last week as a close contact of the seaport's 10th confirmed case. The 11th case was tested last Friday, along with the other close contacts of the 10th case. None of the other close contacts tested positive.
The latest case involves an employee who began experiencing symptoms at home on Friday evening. The employee went to the clinic Saturday and was tested. The results were given to the employee today. This employee did not report in to work today because he was exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms.
“Here at the Port we are continuing to do everything we can to keep our employees and our tenants safe,” said Port General Manager Rory J. Respicio. “We continue to deep clean and sanitize all facilities, we have installed hand sanitizing stations and we have established the Port Clinic which has had more than 28,700 visits.”
Only DOE, GVB, Port have been reporting infections
The Joint Information Center confirms that only infections of Department of Education, Guam Visitors Bureau, and seaport employees have been reported among all of GovGuam's agencies.
Spokeswoman Jenna Blas said her agency will be reaching out to determine whether other GovGuam agencies have cases of confirmed employees, but have not reported those cases to the JIC.
They DO have cases. The Guam library had a positive case & others who have pre-existing conditions were put at risk (test results not known at this time), because of a general cluster f**kism that potentially spread the disease beyond the library to the museum. Furthermore, Gov Guam units appear to have lose standards on in-person contact, especially when business should be conducted online for non-essential personnel.