To Guam | When Guam's Total COVID-19 Cases Were Over 100

Guam reported the first three COVID-19 cases on March 15, 2020 and as of April 5 the total cases were over 100. After looking into the profiles of those confirmed cases released by Government of Guam, I actually think that the honorable Governor Lou Leon Guerrero could be more confident with the island’s COVID-19 control measures.

As a public health professional with solid epidemiologist training, I’d like to remind people on Guam that as of April 6, among 113 cases (Picture 1), there are 61 in stable conditions and 27 recovered. The percentage of the “61 plus 27” is 77.9% and it’s awesome! Keeping the number of hospitalized cases low at 21 comforts people who worry about the capacity of the island’s medical system, doesn’t it?

Picture 1

In addition, according to a report published by Italy National Health Institute on March 17 (Picture 2), 87.7% of fatal victims in Italy were patients over 70 years old. That means people over 70 have a higher risk of developing severe illness, or losing their lives, once they got infected. Please notice that, here on Guam, we have 14 over-70-year-old cases. It’s 15% only. It helps a lot when everyone of us really hope to avoid tragedies as possible as we can.

Picture 2

However, the percentage of cases of age 60 to 69 is 27.4%. This number should remind us that we need to offered extra care to the seniors in our community to help them prevent from contracting the coronavirus.

The report from Italy mentioned above also told us that 99.2% of Italy’s coronavirus fatalities were people with at least one chronic medical condition, such as hypertension, diabetes and heart disease (Picture 3). I believe the prevalence of those chronic disease is high on Guam. Our epidemic response has to include special preventive care for chronic patients as well to really flatten the curve and save the vulnerable.

Picture 3

Although COVID-19 is not flu, the coronavirus appears to be showing its highly contagious nature and “flu-like pandemic pattern” after so many countries around the world reported cases. It’s almost impossible to contain the spread. That is why Germany stops being worried about the big number of infected cases they found thru the vast testing and really pays attention to preventing severe illness and avoiding deaths. Guam may need to learn from Germany and keeps the good job we have done so far to take good care of the vulnerable in our community.