ONE PAGE UPDATE ACROSS MICRONESIA:
FSM citizens repatriation
Finally, on 24 November 2020, a press release from the FSM PIO confirms the repatriation date of December 5, 2020, and the number of repatriated persons: 41, including diplomats. I feel like we're getting somewhere now. For a while, after the initial press release on November 18 announcing the repatriation, there was confusion over whether diplomats would be joining the first repatriation of FSM citizens. Actually, the confusion was not on whether they would be, but why? Why would diplomats be among the first repatriated citizens? Of course, when the US is providing the aircraft that sort of answers the question, but the question still lingers.....
RMI COVID19 status
Over in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the latest COVID19 numbers show three active cases, and one recovered with 313 repatriated citizens. I'm wondering if any of those repatriations were diplomats? Questions linger...
Palau sends ex-pats back
Meanwhile, in one of the remaining few COVID-19 free countries, Palau, a third charter flight is set to take 100 Filipino nationals back to the Philippines. The previous flights took out 106 in August and 59 in September. Good luck to them as they return home in time for the holidays.
Guam and Hawaii numbers continue to climb
And while we continue to stay COVID-19 free, our international airline gateways in Guam and Hawaii continue to have positive cases. In Hawaii, 61 new COVID cases were reported on November 24, and in Guam, the 107th COVID-19 death was reported, along with 53 new cases confirmed.
OPINION:
The repatriation of FSM citizens is good news. Especially for our medical referral patients who were caught returning from the Philippines when the travel ban went into effect. They should be the priority and all who follow should be at the very least, FSM citizens. Diplomats? I don't see them as a priority. Yes, they are our partners and friends and are always welcome to our shores. Our people need to be taken care of first. Always.
With the news of the COVID-19 vaccine arriving sometime in December, we sincerely hope that we can put the crazy year of 2020 to rest and start to open up travel, and all the things that make us humans, that make us social animals. The whole idea of social distancing and avoiding crowds is against the nature of people. Because we are people, we belong with other people. We meet, we greet, we touch, talk and we love to be together. Is this wrong? Up until this year, that would've been a silly question. Let's hope for a return to silliness in 2021.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
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