The Northern Marianas now has 96 cases of Covid-19 after four people were confirmed with the virus over the weekend.
The latest cases were incoming passengers from Guam who were identified by travel screening and have now been moved to an isolation area.
Out of the 96 total cases, 70 are from incoming passengers, including 34 from the US mainland, 25 from Guam, and 11 from foreign countries.
Kanoa Resort Quarantine Facility in CNMI Photo: RNZ Pacific / Mark Rabago
Twenty-six cases were also from community transmission, 10 from contact tracing and 16 from community testing conducted by CHCC, including two deaths. The CNMI hasn't had any community transmission since its 51st case in early August.
Meanwhile, the Alternate Care Site at the Kanoa Resort on Saipan has finally opened seven months after Covid hit the CNMI.
The Alternate Care Site, or ACS, will serve as a specific healthcare facility where all cases in the CNMI will be handled outside the Commonwealth Health Center, which would allow the hospital to handle people who do not have Covid-19.
The opening of the ACS marked the first time a hotel had been converted into an acute level care facility in a US jurisdiction.
The ACS will be converted back into a hotel once the coronvirus outbreak in the CNMI is over.
The conversion called for transforming the entire left side of the hotel lobby, equipping it with 50 to 70 intensive care unit beds and over 115 mid-level care rooms.
It is also equipped with hospital beds, its own pharmacy, multiple air ventilators, facilities for doctors and nurses, an Intensive Care Unit with hemodialysis and medical imaging capabilities, a comforting space to treat patients, and a discharge room.
The building of the ACS was spurred by projections of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the CNMI would have 6,000 to 8,000 Covid-19 cases by June if there were no restrictions in place.
It also came at a time when the mainland US had a surge of cases where over 9,000 healthcare professionals contracted Covid-19 while taking care of patients.
The US territory recorded its first coronavirus case on 28 March and it was followed by a semi-lockdown of businesses, shutdown of schools and non-critical government offices, a strict curfew from 6pm to 6am, and the closing of the CNMI's borders after a week.