The Northern Marianas has started mass Covid-19 testing of its residents with a drive-thru setup at Saipan's international airport.
Saipan in the Northern Marianas. Photo: Supplied
The Governor's Covid-19 Taskforce said the arrival and departure areas of the airport would be used to accommodate drive-thru collection of specimens from registered vehicle passengers.
The specimen collection will implement social distancing measures.
The taskforce said community testing would help to identify people who may be infected with the coronavirus, especially those who might be pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic.
In this way the taskforce said it could direct people to the appropriate care, contain the virus, and prevent its spread.
Testing in the CNMI started in earnest after the local government bought 60,000 test kits from South Korea.
The taskforce said staff at the Commonwealth Health Center had already been tested with no positive results with the government now looking at testing civil servants.