Friday, October 29, 2021
Northern Mariana Islands governor Ralph Torres today ordered all schools and colleges on the islands to close for the next ten days, aiming to “mitigate against community spread” after three cases of COVID-19 were recorded yesterday, with at least two of the cases being related to middle schools on Saipan.
In a statement, Governor Torres promised that “We have the tools in place to contain this”, adding, “I want to personally assure the educational community, staff, parents, families, and students that we will do everything as a government to protect the Commonwealth as we have successfully done throughout the course of the pandemic”.
The Public School System of the Northern Mariana Islands has stated that the two cases have been linked with the Chacha Oceanview and Francisco M. Sablan middle schools on Saipan, with no information yet released on where the third case may be linked to.
The Northern Mariana Islands have previously been free of community transmission of COVID-19 for over 200 days. With the inclusion of the three new cases, there have now been a total of 294 COVID-19 infections in the Northern Marianas since March 2020.