Plans to amend quarantine guidelines underway, group working on getting homebound manamko' vaccinated

The governor has shifted the island into, businesses can now up their occupancy level, and gatherings with members outside your family are now at 15. And with all that change, we might just see some changes to the quarantine guidelines in the near future, according to Dr. Hoa Nguyen of the Physicians Advisory Group.

"The proposed guidelines, we will require the 72 hours PCR testing prior to arrival," he said. "And then, the QFACs are still in place, but hopefully, we can test out a little bit earlier, just because the 72 hours, we can test out on day 4, day 5. If it's negative, you can go home and the next seven days quarantine with the SARA ALERT and the Guam COVID App in place."

Dr. Nguyen says with the new strain of the coronavirus, home solation probably isn't in the cards for those making their way from abroad.

"Because a new strain of the COVID, that's in the US, if you test positive you will be in isolation fac hotel for the next 10 days," he said. "You cannot do home isolation. That's a big change. Just because, you know, with the new strain it's so much more infective that it's a big risk for people of Guam if you do home isolation, and you break the isolation at home."

On top of the proposed quarantine guideline changes, Dr. Nguyen says they've also been busy getting the vaccine to those manamko' unable to make their way to a vaccine site.

"We understand that a lot of people calling our clinic and request that, so we decided to put our team together and we're trying our best to do it. It takes a lot of time for the staff, we actually have to observe them at home for 15 minutes to 30 minutes, so it's very time consuming," he said. "But again, it's very rewarding. So, this weekend, we're gonna work with Mayor Paco and get the MTM homebound folks vaccinated." 

Being that this process is volunteer-based, Dr. Nguyen says it'll take some time.

"It's strictly volunteers of my staff so, we just have take it one at a time," he said. "I know that we have a lot of Physicians that live in Yona. So I know that Yona will be the next one in line."

Dr. Nguyen says they'll be bringing some extra doses along, for the caregivers.

"When we vaccinate the homebound, we ask them, we would like to give the primary caregiver the vaccination also," he said. "So, usually when we go out, we carry double the amount of vaccines so that way we offer the primary caregiver also at home."

For those interested in being put on the list for homebound manamko' vaccinations, contact your respective village mayor.