Ex-pats among residents seeking vaccine

COVID-19 vaccinations and testing resumed today at the Dededo Farmers Co-Op after being canceled Tuesday due to inclement weather.

Shadia Constantine is a physician working on Guam but is also a wife and mother to three boys. She shares that her family was brought to Guam to get immunized against the coronavirus.

"My family live in Japan, they are all Americans and I got vaccinated earlier on so because the rollout in Japan has been so slow so I brought them here to get vaccinated," she shared. "So my husband and my 13-year-old just got the vaccine thanks to Guam. Thank you."

Her son, Roman Constantine and Japan received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. He shared what made him roll up his sleeve.

"Because I am 13-years-old and I wanted to be cured of the coronavirus," he said. "I don't see why you need to be scared like the vaccine is good."

Shadia's husband, 40-year-old Jonathon Constantine, as well as 70-year-old Daisy Mackwelung of Mangilao shared why they got vaccinated against COVID-19.

"I want to contribute to getting rid of this pandemic," Jonathon Constantine said. "I want to be one of the people getting it cleared and hopefully telling more people about it so that everybody gets it."

"Because we're planning to go to the Mainland for a family reunion so I wanna make sure that we got everything before we leave," Mackwelung said. 

Despite the rainy weather earlier in the week, the COVID-19 combination clinic, spearheaded by the Department of Public Health and Social Services and the Guam National Guard went well. Medical Task Force Acting Commander Maj. Rosanne Apuron said after an hour of operations about 70 doses of the COVID vaccines were administered. She said those who showed up to get vaccinated shared that they are looking forward to winning something from the "Vax To Win" incentive program.

"Mostly for their health and safety for themselves and family members," Apuron said. "They also came through and some of them heard about the vax and the raffle drawing that we got going on in the government as a good incentive."

By the end of the day, 100 doses of the COVID vaccine were administered.

As far as COVID testing, DPHSS Nursing Resource Command Margarita Bautista Gay said testing was slow Wednesday morning, compared to last week where a hundred samples were tested. She shares some of the reasons why island residents pulled up to the clinic.

"So we just had one with lost of taste and smell, coughing, slight fever, sore throat, running nose," she said. "Those are common symptoms for flu but because of COVID they're scared that it might be COVID so they're just making sure that they are safe."

She shared that 60 people were tested with 90 specimens collected today at the clinic.