With 470 new COVID-19 cases recorded on the island since Monday, the re-opening of the senior centers is being postponed until further notice.

Due to the reported increase in COVID cases, the delay was at the request of the Department of Public Health and Social Services, and not the Mayors' Council of Guam, Executive Director Angel Sablan said.

"So we’re just following their recommendation and it’s due to the uptick of COVID cases," he said. "I know that our seniors are anxious to get back into the swing of things, and what we’re doing in the centers, meeting their friends, and having the activities but the bottom line is we want everyone to be safe. The bottom line is we want to make sure that we don’t go back into a situation where we become … instead of saving their lives and so in this case we’re following the recommendation of Public Health."

When KUAM News asked about when the island’s manamko' can anticipate the re-opening of senior centers, Sablan had this to say.

"No, we don’t because we don’t know what the future looks like," he said. "So were just going to have to play it by ear and wait to see what happens in the next few weeks whether or not we get worse or we get better, hopefully, we get better but we don’t want to make a date and it comes that time we move it again. So we are going to wait until we study the issue and come up with the best recommendations depending on what the scenarios are."

All 12 senior centers on the island were scheduled to re-open on Jan. 10, 2022, after being closed for nearly two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.