The Journal makes every attempt to advise its readers of any developments in the changing landscape that COVID has caused to travel, entry requirements and quarantine – typically through the news updates that we issue.
We consider passing along news on COVID an obligation and it is part of our mission – to connect people with information.
(You can currently sign up for the complimentary updates on www.mbjguam.com.)
Health agency websites, tourism sites and various websites of practically all destinations carry information that should be accurate — but it never hurts to check.
Because not only does information change, but as our story on the Sara Alert around the islands show — it is not only a changing landscape, but a confusing one.
The readers that contacted the paper after our story on the Guam Health Declaration were clearly unaware that they would no longer be contacted by the Sara Alert as returning residents to Guam.
Neither were we.
Those individuals deserve thanks for their willingness to be monitored for symptoms to the benefit of all of us.
And we are grateful that their enquiries also provided us with the opportunity to see how the Sara Alert is being used — or not — in our region.
Theories abound on what the Omicron variant and its pervasiveness means for the future.
For the foreseeable future residents of many of the islands are living and working side by side with the variant.
Indeed, our business communities and organizations continue to hold happy events – even with robust precautions.
The Journal is also delighted to see the return of “Focus,” which features photos of your events.
Our restaurants continue to remain open, even if – in Guam at least – they are bursting at the seams.
Residents continue to host events – at hotels, in restaurants, at their homes – many of them outside.
This is the third year of living with COVID, and despite all the sickness and bereavements the epidemic has caused, the human spirit continues to revive.
As Patrick Sotto of the Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services rightly said in our Sara Alert story, “We’re trying to embrace this co-existing with COVID.” mbj
