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Category: News
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Published: Thursday, 26 March 2020 22:41
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Written by Bill Jaynes
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Responders struggle with learning curve and urge continued vigilance by FSM residents
By Bill Jaynes
The Kaselehlie Press
March 20, 2020
FSM—As of today, the Federated States of Micronesia officially announced that after testing for suspected cases the FSM has NO cases of COVID-19. The tests for the three people who presented with suspect symptoms in Yap and the one in Pohnpei all came back negative for the novel coronavirus.
Though the news is good news, health officials are cautioning residents to remain vigilant by continuing the practices of social distancing and thorough and frequent hand washing. The Task Force in Pohnpei says that if you have COVID-19 symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath and body aches) DO NOT go to the hospital, clinics or dispensaries as this can cause further spread. In Pohnpei call 320-3109 if you are experiencing symptoms and don’t ignore symptoms. Do not attend public gatherings or crowds. No not come in close contact with anyone who has fever and a cough.
FSM and State governments have assured FSM citizens that freight will continue to be carried and have asked residents not to stockpile supplies as more will come and stockpiling deprives others of supplies they may need while you don’t use them.
Several times United Airlines has announced flight cancellations due to the arrival of the virus in Hawaii and in Guam. According to The Village travel agency, who has not received an official notification from United Airlines who also did not confirm them for us, today was to be the last full island hopper flight from Hawaii to Guam until May 3, but it did not arrive. This weekend they will do a short island hopper flight from Guam to Pohnpei and back again and will repeat that flight again on Monday. After this weekend’s flights the short route will only fly on Saturdays until May 3. Those route announcements are subject to change. Kosrae will not have another flight from United until May 3.
Asia Pacific Airlines will continue to carry cargo to FSM’s states during that time.
Misinformation on social media and by word of mouth has become a big factor that FSM health practitioners have not had to deal with during past viral outbreaks like SARS or the Cholera epidemic. The public is challenged not to share misinformation and rumors or discriminate against anyone associated with COVID-19. Don’t believe everything you read on social media or on the Internet in general.
Unfortunately, according to comments on social media, some residents of Pohnpei took the negative test result as a sign that all is well. One FB poster wrote that the danger was over for now so they could go back to the sakau market. Others agreed, however, the virus itself has not yet been defeated in the world and social gatherings are still a dangerous idea for all concerned. Though the FSM has yet to have an identified case of COVID-19, it does NOT mean that COVID-19 is not already here and each person should act as if they are a transmitter of the disease and take precautions to avoid the possibility of infecting everyone they care about.
Another person on Facebook wanted to know why people are still in quarantine if the test came back negative. People are in quarantine because they have come to Pohnpei on a flight that may have been carrying people who are infected but don’t yet know it yet; people who perhaps traveled from Guam or Hawaii where the COVID-19 virus has definitely been identified. The quarantine is for observation of arriving passengers to ensure that they do not have the virus in order to protect the community.
As the press release from the National Government on page seven of this issue says, ALL travelers arriving in the FSM must be quarantined for 14 days. For now, no travelers are allowed to disembark in Chuuk while it makes quarantine arrangements it apparently had not made before the virus arrived in Hawaii and in Guam despite having been given funding to do so. Pohnpei will allow only residents to enter except for invited medical professionals and those residents will need to be evaluated for quarantine. Qualified doctors make the call on how long a traveler must be quarantined based on a variety of factors and their professional opinion. Only they can authorize release a person earlier than 14 days. Some have been released earlier or even never admitted at all based on standards and qualifications that the doctors know.
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Category: News
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Published: Thursday, 26 March 2020 03:40
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Written by Bill Jaynes
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FSM Information Services
PALIKIR, Pohnpei— The 21st Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) began its Fourth Special Session on March 5th, 2020. After the opening session, the Vice President of the FSM, the Honorable Yosiwo P. George, received the Committee to Wait, chaired by the Honorable Ferny S. Perman, with committee members the Honorable Joseph J. Urusemal, the Honorable Aren B. Palik, and the Honorable Paliknoa K. Welly, to discuss their agenda for this session of Congress. It was noted, both in a formal communication to His Excellency David W. Panuelo, President of the FSM, from the Honorable Wesley W. Simina, Speaker of the 21st FSM Congress, as well during the opening session itself, that the primary purpose of the Special Session is to review the economic impacts of the COVID-19 coronavirus on the Nation.
“We are here to listen to the Executive [Branch],” Senator Perman began. “One of the main purposes for this Special Session is to address what’s happening with the coronavirus.”
Senator Perman first noted that the 21st FSM Congress’ legal staff, having reviewed the President’s declaration and clarification/s, was uncertain if the U.S. Territory of Guam and the U.S. State of Hawaii were being treated as the rest of the United States (i.e. as a COVID-19 affected country, where travelers to the FSM originating from there are subject to a 14-day delay in a COVID-19 free country). It was requested that the Executive Branch be clearer in its communications.
“For all [COVID-19 related] intents and purposes,” said the Honorable Joses R. Gallen, Secretary of the Department of Justice, “…we are treating Guam and Honolulu as being [separate from] the U.S.”
Senator Perman then noted the economic impact in the FSM due to the travel restrictions in place, and requested that the Executive Branch prioritize the development of a plan to assist. “We look at the economy today, and we know how it’s affected,” Senator Perman said, “Is there a way that the Executive are looking at this economic downfall to address it?” Senator Perman cited the hospitality industry as a prime example of an area feeling the economic impacts of COVID-19 travel restrictions right now.
The Executive Branch is aware of formal and informal communications from the hospitality industry regarding the impact of COVID-19-related travel restrictions on their financial wellbeing. To the knowledge of the President, Blue Lagoon Resort in Chuuk State has temporarily closed down, and Manta Ray Resort in Yap State has needed to layoff sixty (60) employees to remain financially solvent.
“The Executive [Branch] is aware of the negative impacts on the Nations economy,” Vice President George replied, followed by requesting Rob Solomon, Macroeconomic Advisor to the FSM, to describe in detail how the FSM is tackling the economic impacts.
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Category: News
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Published: Thursday, 26 March 2020 03:40
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Written by Bill Jaynes
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By Bill Jaynes
The Kaselehlie Press
March 4, 2020
Pohnpei—The Credentials Committee of the Pohnpei State Legislature has refused to seat Ricky Carl to the seat that over 1800 voters of Madolenihmw chose him to occupy. Speaker Ausen Lambert has declared the seat to be vacant and has transmitted his request that Governor Reed Oliver hold a special election to fill the seat which by law he must now do.
In August of 2019 Pohnpei’s Election Commissioner disallowed Carl’s candidacy for the legislature and also disallowed a request for reconsideration. At issue was the question of whether or not Carl was a resident of Madolenihmw. On August 26, Carl filed a legal action at the Pohnpei State Supreme Court and on September 16 the Court ruled in Carl’s favor. The Court said in its ruling that though the Constitution does require that a candidate be a resident of the municipality he or she is running to represent for three years, both the Constitution and the Pohnpei State Code are silent on whether those years need be consecutive.
Carl had presented evidence that during his lifetime he has lived in Madolenihmw for over 30 years. He also presented affidavits from Kerpet Hebel, Isipahu, Nahnmwahrki en Madolenihmw, and John Adolph, Iso Nahniken en Madolenihmw both testifying that Carl holds the high title of Luhk en Lengso in Madolenihmw. Both affidavits testified that the title is never bestowed on a non-resident of Madolenihmw.
The ruling said that it had been proved to the Court that Carl owns land in Madolenihmw and often lives there.
The Election Commissioner appealed the Courts decision but the Apellate Panel did not render a ruling before the election and the Election Commissioner asked the Court to dismiss the appeal. The September ruling of the Supreme Court is therefore still in place.
In a February 20 letter to Speaker Lambert, Carl asked the Speaker to reconsider. The letter claimed that he had asked the Credentials Committee to appear before them to provide evidence in support of his position in the matter but that the Committee did not give him that opportunity. He said that failure was a denial of due process.
Speaker Lambert did not respond to the request but did declare the seat to be vacant and notified the Governor.
The report of the Credentials Committee was issued and adopted on February 11, 2020. It says that the Election Commissioner’s underlying reason for denying Carl’s petition for candidacy was that in 2003 Carl had registered to vote in Kolonia and didn’t transfer his voter registration until February 4, 2017. The Election Commissioner determined that as a result, Carl did not fulfill the three-year citizenry requirement. “Stated somewhat differently,” the report says, “Ricky Carl’s February 4, 2017 registration date falls 22 days short of the commencement of the Tenth Pohnpei Legislature Term (e.g. January 13, 2020)”
The Committee Report said that its members, cognizant of the Constitutional provision that “the Legislature shall be the sole judge of the qualifications of its members”, met three times to discuss whether Carl had satisfied Constitutional requirement for qualifications for membership. It said that the Committee decided that in construing the intent of the Constitution, “one should endeavor to divine the plain meaning of the words utilized by the framers.” They decided that the plainest explanation of the requirement that a candidate “has been a citizen of the local government that he represents for at least three years” is that of an action that began in the past and is still in progress—in other words, it requires at least three consecutive years of residency. The Committee therefore recommended that Ricky Carl not be seated as a member of the Legislature.
The Committee provides no indication that it ever considered the Pohnpei State Supreme Court’s ruling that said the opposite of what they decided.
A petition demanding that the Legislature seat Ricky Carl as their representative as the voters chose to do during the election has begun widely circulating in Madolenihmw. It is not certain whether a petition would in any sway the current course that has been set in place by the Speaker’s declaration of the seat as being vacant other than perhaps a political one.
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Category: News
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Published: Monday, 02 March 2020 02:52
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Written by Bill Jaynes
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By Bill Jaynes
The Kaselehlie Press
February 21, 2020—With the novel corona virus (now officially known as COVID-19) rapidly spreading in many places in the world, FSM President David Panuelo instituted a strict policy outright banning travel to the FSM from anywhere in mainland China. He also established travel restrictions for travelers to the FSM requiring them to have spent 14 days in a country or territory that had not had any confirmed cases of the virus. For FSM travelers, that primarily meant Hawaii or Guam.
On the morning of February 12, a committee of Congress held a public hearing on a resolution that had been introduced that would keep the outright ban on travel from China to the FSM in place but lift the quarantine restriction for travelers. It also would extend the Emergency Health Declaration by 60 days. The resolution would also authorize the President to reinstate the quarantine restrictions if the World Health Organization (WHO) provided guidance that led him to believe that he should do so.
A WHO representative provided testimony during the hearing. He reiterated several times that travel bans are not effective as the ONLY tool for the prevention of the spread of the virus but that it could be an effective tool for a government to buy time while readying its response to the virus. Since that time, an anonymously sponsored website has been spreading the message that the WHO says that travel bans are ineffective. That is not the position of WHO either in its testimony at the FSM Congress hearing or in its official policy statements.
The WHO representative testified that the WHO does not dictate to countries what their response should be and that every country should decide based on their level of preparedness, the impact on the local economy and a variety of other factors.
In that morning’s session Congress passed the resolution. The new policy was effective immediately on passage and Congress resolutions do not require Presidential approval. However, enforcement is the responsibility of the Executive Branch which was to have notified airlines and others that Congress had lifted certain travel restrictions. It didn’t do so. In practice, a traveler who had not yet spent 14 days in a country or territory that had not yet had a confirmed case still could not be boarded on an airline that travels to the FSM because no one notified the airlines or enforcement officers at points of entry that the restrictions had been lifted.
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Category: News
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Published: Monday, 02 March 2020 02:40
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Written by Bill Jaynes
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By Bill Jaynes
The Kaselehlie Press
February 7, 2020
FSM—In a concerted effort to keep the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) from infecting anyone in the FSM, on January 31, 2020, FSM President David Panuelo declared a public health emergency. The declaration banned all outward bound travel to mainland China or to any country where the virus is present including the U.S. mainland, which as of today has 12 confirmed cases of the virus. Citizens and residents returning to the FSM from a country where the virus is present are not allowed to enter the FSM unless they have first stayed in a country, state or territory with no cases of 2019-nCoV for 14 days immediately prior to re-entry.
On Saturday, February 1, the President released a clarification on the travel ban saying that Guam and Hawaii would be treated separately from the mainland United States. Travel to and from those places was unrestricted with the exception that people returning from the US mainland or any other country where the virus has been identified would be required to spend 14 days in one of the unaffected areas immediately before returning to the FSM.
The clarification also said that exceptions to the outward bound travel ban would be allowed for people requiring urgent medical care that could not be provided in the FSM. That urgent medical care would need to be certified by a physician.
On Tuesday, February 4, President Panuelo amended the travel ban by lifting the ban on outward bound travel with the exception of mainland China. FSM residents may not travel to mainland China. “Although there is no ban on travels to destinations other than mainland China, citizens are nevertheless strongly advised against taking unnecessary travel to other countries with confirmed cases of the Coronavirus.”
If outward bound travelers do decide to travel to countries where the virus is present and want to return, they will still be bound to spend 14 consecutive days in an unaffected country, state, or territory before they can return to the FSM. Currently air travelers could wait out their time of quarantine in Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, or Guam, but as the disease widens its global footprint, there is no way to know if those three places will remain virus free.
Though it took some time for United Airlines to receive word of the various aspects of the ban and the various changes and clarification, they will be enforcing the ban for travelers attempting to return to the FSM. They are now informed that outward bound travel is allowable and are again allowing passengers to board outbound flights from the FSM. Recently, Air Niugini also agreed to enforce the ban for their travelers.
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Published: Monday, 02 March 2020 02:27
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Written by Bill Jaynes
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By Bill Jaynes
The Kaselehlie Press
February 7, 2020
FSM—The Internet is rife with blatantly inaccurate information on the 2019 corona virus. It is important to arm yourself with the most accurate sources of information you can find. The World Health Organization is one of those sources. It can easily be found by searching for “what is coronavirus”. www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses is an excellent source of information for what the virus is and what can a person do to protect themselves.
What is it and what does it do?
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses found in both animals and humans. Some infect people and are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). But, though the new virus is in the same family as SARS and MERS, it is a different virus. A novel coronavirus (CoV) is a new strain of coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans. The new, or “novel” coronavirus, now called 2019-nCoV, had not been previously detected before the outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
As with other respiratory illnesses, infection with 2019-nCoV can cause mild symptoms including a runny nose, sore throat, cough, and fever. It can be more severe for some persons and can lead to pneumonia or breathing difficulties. More rarely, the disease can be fatal. Older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as, diabetes and heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus.
The 2019-nCoV causes respiratory disease and can be transmitted from person to person, usually after close contact with an infected patient, for example, in a household workplace, or health care center.
The incubation period, time between infection and the onset of clinical symptoms of disease is currently estimated in a range of 1-12.5 days with median estimates of 5 to 6 days. Based on information from other coronavirus diseases, such as MERS and SARS, the incubation period of 2019-nCoV could be up to 14 days. According to recent reports, it may be possible that people infected with 2019-nCoV may be infectious before showing significant symptoms. However, based on currently available data, the people who have symptoms are causing the majority of virus spread.
WHO says that people receiving packages are not at risk of contracting the new coronavirus. From experience with other coronaviruses, we know that these types of viruses don’t survive long on objects, such as letters or packages.
What can you do to protect yourself
