The following is a transcription of a special address by Governor Lou Leon Guerrero to the people of Guam announcing the end of the public health emergency tonight:
Buenas yan Håfa Adai!
Today marks a major milestone in our island’s history.As we begin this New Year, we recognize that we are at the dawn of a new era of our island’s recovery from the challenges of the last three years. I could not be more grateful.These years may have tested us as a people, but through it all — we remained vigilant, we never lost hope, and we united as a community to fight the spread of this virus. Together, we kept our people safe and we kept our island strong.Presently, we have achieved a level of pandemic readiness and response where we all can be confident and our island can manage the spread and treatment of remaining COVID-19 cases, and any periodic fluctuations in our case count.For this reason, I am happy to announce that effective at midnight tonight, we will no longer be in a public health emergency.Our administration has been hard at work to ensure that the few remaining measures from our public health emergency that our community continues to rely on today will be addressed.We are working with our federal partners to ensure that measures are in place to continue the provision of the emergency allotment for SNAP households to address the food insecurity experienced by these families. Consistent with the advice of the administering federal agency, I will be issuing a separate emergency declaration for this limited purpose.Additionally, our Guam National Guardsmen who continue to assist in limited response efforts such as vaccinations will be activated for this purpose pursuant to their territorial duties.The milestone we achieved today is a testament to the courage and character of our people. It reflects what we all already know is true: when we work together as a people, we can achieve great things.
Please continue to be safe. Si Yu’os Ma’åse’!
