Public Health: nearly 2,000 medical workers vaccinated over weekend

Public Health resumed community mass testing today, and the agency provided an update on the three-day vaccination clinics conducted last week.

Mass community testing continued this morning at two sites: the Micronesia Mall parking lot in Dededo and the old carnival grounds in Tiyan. Both sites offered up to 300 tests per site at no cost. This follows the three-day vaccination clinics that were conducted at Okkodo High School, GRMC, and GMH.

According to Public Health spokesperson Janela Carrera, a total of 1,934 people were vaccinated. However, they will deliberate holding a callout for another round of vaccinations for Phase 1a. "If you weren't able to come out during the vaccination clinic for Phase 1a personnel healthcare personnel then we'll have another vaccination clinic you can come on out because when we did our initial survey we did identify that for the phase 1a category there may be about 2,600 people that fall under that group," she explained.

"Everything so far were pretty normal reactions you know just mild injection site pain, you know maybe some who reported some mild headaches but nothing reported like the three that were reported."

Over the weekend Guam received its second shipment of the Pfizer vaccine.  A shipment of two boxes containing a total of 7,800 doses arrived Saturday.

While both packages were being inspected and recharged with dry ice, it was discovered that the GPS-enabled thermal sensor in one package did not have the proper "green" color to signal that the package was in acceptable condition. Although the green light on the GPS-enabled thermal sensor indicates the package maintained sufficient temperatures throughout its delivery to Guam, the absence of the green light does not necessarily indicate that acceptable temperatures were not maintained.

"Hopefully by tomorrow we'll know more on you know what the disposition would be," said Carrera.

With that particular box and what we would need to do with it but in the meantime what we are doing is you know we've recharged it with dry ice so that we can maintain those ultra low cold temperatures to ensure that it's viable so that if our the manufacturer determines that it's still viable and in good condition to be able to use it then you know it maintains those temperatures

Additionally over the weekend the FDA approved emergency use authorization  for the Moderna vaccine. The EUA allows the Moderna vaccine to be distributed in the U.S. for use in individuals 18 years of age and older. Carrera could not say when it will arrive on Guam. 

Meanwhile, the vaccine committee met today to discuss the next vaccination phase: Phase 1b, consisting of essential service workers.