The Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association said they were blindsided by the governor’s announcement during a late afternoon press conference on Friday requiring proof of vaccination before entering certain establishments.

According to the governor’s executive order effective Monday, Aug. 23 you have to prove that you are fully vaccinated in order to enter all restaurants, bars, clubs, gyms, fitness centers, dance studios, movie theaters, food courts at shopping establishments, bowling alleys, sporting events, concerts, boat cruises, and other establishments and events identified by Department of Public Health and Social Services. Staff at these establishments were given until Sept. 27 to be vaccinated.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero during her press conference said she knows for a fact that DPHSS Director Art San Agustin as well as DPHSS Chief Public Health Officer Chima Mbawkwem met with GHRA President Mary Rhodes on Thursday about the proposed restrictions.

Shortly after the press conference, however, Rhodes issued a statement confirming there was a meeting with DPHSS to discuss the recommendations made by the Physicians Advisory Group.

Rhodes stated they “were not informed they were going to mandate vaccines at establishments for service staff. Vaccines at the workplace have always been up to each employer”. Second, Rhodes stated they were told by the PAG they would implement it in three weeks to give time for staff to get fully vaccinated by a certain date, ”We need to allow business to acclimate to the new requirements, train and schedule staff, put the proper protocols in place, and notify the public on the new entry requirements”. Third, Rhodes noted that the governor’s announcement that only fully vaccinated individuals can enter certain establishments was not what was recommended by the PAG.

KUAM confirmed with PAG Chair Dr. Hoa Nguyen that the governor’s latest Executive Order requiring mandatory vaccination to enter certain establishments, such as restaurants was not what the group recommended. Instead, Dr. Nguyen said the PAG recommended: Restaurants can operate at 100% occupancy but vaccinated individuals eat indoors, while unvaccinated individuals dine outside. The other recommendation was that restaurants can operate at 50% occupancy regardless if patrons are vaccinated or unvaccinated.

It was on July 30 the governor lifted all restrictions after the island achieved 80% adult herd immunity. Since then Guam has recorded 758 new positive cases of COVID-19, and one person has died. As of Friday night, there were 20 hospitalizations, 17 of those patients are unvaccinated.

The governor during her press conference on Friday said fines would be issued to individuals and businesses not following her executive order starting Monday. However, shortly after the press conference, the Governor’s Communications Director Krystal Paco San Agustin informed the media that because of concerns from the community, enforcement of fines was pushed back two weeks or until Monday, Sept. 6.

Just before 7 o’clock Saturday morning, Adelup released the DPHSS guidelines related to the Governor’s Executive Order that island residents and businesses must comply with beginning Monday at 8 a.m.

Read the full GHRA statement:

Hafa Adai Members,

UPDATE: While the vaccination mandate for establishments for entrance of patrons goes into effect on Monday, August 23, enforcement will commence at least two weeks from effective date which is on Monday, September 6.

Earlier today, the Governor of Guam held a press conference announcing the Executive Order 2021-19. Please know GHRA met with DPHSS to discuss the recommendations made by PAG. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to work with the government as we work through this pandemic, but we were considering options for the businesses to select how they can operate within certain limitations as initially recommended by the Physicians Advisory Group. The following includes a brief summary of what was discussed:

First, we were not informed that they were going to mandate vaccines at the establishments for service staff. Vaccines at the workplace has always been up to each employer. GHRA has led many vaccine clinics the last seven months, but have never pushed for mandating vaccines.

Second, we were told by PAG they would implement in in three weeks to allow for training and communications for staff and to encourage the public to schedule vaccines to get fully vaccinated by a certain date. The Governor announced this takes effect on Monday, which was not our understanding of PAG’s recommendations. We need to allow businesses to acclimate to the new requirements, train and schedule staff, put the proper protocols in place, and notify the public on the new entry requirements.

Third, the announcement today requires certain businesses and activities to only allow 100% access for vaccinated individuals. GHRA only discussed the options that were recommended by the PAG including:

- If businesses don’t want to check vaccinations, they can operate at 50%. This is no different than what businesses were doing before restrictions were lifted. So this is reasonable for businesses to comply with if they don’t want to check for proof of vaccination

- If they do check for proof of vaccines, they can operate at 100%

- social gathering limited to 25 unless you can prove vaccinations, which would allow between 26-150.

For proof of vaccines, we recommended paper or photocopies of CDC card and/or second verification on smartphones. GHRA also presented a QR code solution that would be seamless for the businesses and public to use while allowing DPHSS the access to review the QR code scans by businesses, which would help them more effectively manage contact tracing in real-time. We have had the QR code in use for Air V&V since July and first introduced at the Economic Forum in June as a solution for Guam.