PALIKIR, Pohnpei—Due to the rapidly evolving situation in many Pacific Island Countries as a result of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Government of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) has determined that it is in the Nation’s collective public health interest to delay the forthcoming repatriation flights to the States of Pohnpei and Chuuk, and to cancel until further notice the repatriation flights to the States of Kosrae and Yap.
The repatriation flight to Pohnpei State will be delayed to February 2nd. Repatriating persons will remain in the pre-quarantine site, and undergo a third (3rd) PCR-based COVID-19 test prior to arrival in the Nation.
The repatriation flight to Chuuk State will be delayed to February 7th. Repatriating persons will remain in the pre-quarantine site, and undergo a third (3rd) PCR-based COVID-19 test prior to arrival in the Nation.
The repatriation flights scheduled for Kosrae State and Yap State are canceled until further notice.
The first reason for the delay is due to the high rate of positive cases of COVID-19 being found in the pre-quarantine process so far. Eleven (11) persons were removed from the repatriation flight to Pohnpei State as a result of the first PCR-based test, of whom eight (8) were positive. An additional seven (7) persons came back with a positive COVID-19 test result after the second test, for a total of fifteen (15) positive cases so far. For reference, the original size of the repatriating group is eighty (80) persons.
The second reason for the delay is that the U.S. Territory of Guam has been seeing new records of daily cases of COVID-19. As Guam is the location of the Nation’s pre-quarantine site, the COVID19 situation in Guam is used as the Government’s litmus test to determine the risk of bringing COVID-19 into the FSM.
The third reason for the delay is due to the paradigm shift in COVID-19 containment and prevention across other Pacific Island Countries. The Republic of Palau’s community spread is sufficiently wide that the government there is no longer reporting the distinction between border cases and community-spread cases in formal releases. The Republic of Kiribati is in a lockdown, with at least forty (40) community cases as of the evening of January 24th, 2022. Solomon Islands is in a lockdown, with at least three hundred (300) community cases as of January 25th, 2022. The Independent State of Samoa is in a lockdown, with fifteen (15) border cases, though thankfully no community spread at this time. Meanwhile, other jurisdictions in the Indo-Pacific have seen the start of Omicron-related community spread, such as in New Zealand (which has entered a Code Red status), and the Republic of Indonesia, which has announced its first case of the Omicron variant.
It is the view of the FSM National Government that Palau, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Samoa, New Zealand, and Indonesia possess more capacity to handle COVID-19 surges than the FSM does; by extension, if the Nation’s brothers and sisters in these countries are struggling to contain or limit the spread of COVID-19 in their jurisdiction, then citizens can expect the arrival of COVID-19 in the FSM to be destabilizing, and both directly and indirectly harmful.
If the third PCR-based tests for the repatriation flights to Pohnpei State and Chuuk State result in no new infections, then it is likely the repatriation flights will occur without further delay or hindrance.
