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COVID-19 in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands: A timeline of events and lessons learned from March 2020–November 2022

The US-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPIs) experience many health disparities, including high rates of non-communicable disease and limited health resources, making them particularly vulnerable when SARS-CoV-2 began circulating globally in early 2020. Therefore, many USAPIs closed their borders earl...

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Autores principales: Cash McGinley, Haley L., Hancock, W. Thane, Kern-Allely, Stephanie, Jenssen, Melissa, Chutaro, Emi, Camacho, Janet, Judicpa, Pedro, Okumura, Kazuhiro, Muñoz, Nick, Ademokun, Oluwatomiloba M., Brostrom, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10431600/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37585385
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002052
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author Cash McGinley, Haley L.
Hancock, W. Thane
Kern-Allely, Stephanie
Jenssen, Melissa
Chutaro, Emi
Camacho, Janet
Judicpa, Pedro
Okumura, Kazuhiro
Muñoz, Nick
Ademokun, Oluwatomiloba M.
Brostrom, Richard
author_facet Cash McGinley, Haley L.
Hancock, W. Thane
Kern-Allely, Stephanie
Jenssen, Melissa
Chutaro, Emi
Camacho, Janet
Judicpa, Pedro
Okumura, Kazuhiro
Muñoz, Nick
Ademokun, Oluwatomiloba M.
Brostrom, Richard
author_sort Cash McGinley, Haley L.
collection PubMed
description The US-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPIs) experience many health disparities, including high rates of non-communicable disease and limited health resources, making them particularly vulnerable when SARS-CoV-2 began circulating globally in early 2020. Therefore, many USAPIs closed their borders early during the COVID-19 pandemic to give them more time to prepare for community transmission. Routine virtual meetings were established and maintained throughout the pandemic to support preparedness and response efforts and to share information among USAPIs and support partners. Data collected from these regular virtual meetings were gathered and disseminated through routine regional situational reports. These situational reports from March 27, 2020 to November 25, 2022 were reviewed to develop a quantitative dataset with qualitative notes that were used to summarize the COVID-19 response in the USAPIs. The initial surges of COVID-19 in the USAPIs ranged from August 2020 in Guam to August 2022 in the Federated States of Micronesia. This prolonged time between initial surges in the region was due to varying approaches regarding travel requirements, including fully closed borders, repatriation efforts requiring pre-travel quarantine and testing, quarantine requirements upon arrival only, and vaccine mandates. Delaying community transmission allowed USAPIs to establish testing capacity, immunize large proportions of their populations, and use novel COVID-19 therapeutics to reduce severe disease and mortality. Other essential components to support the USAPI regional COVID-19 response efforts included strong partnership and collaboration, regional information sharing and communication efforts, and trust in health leadership among community members. Valuable lessons learned from the USAPIs during the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to continue to strengthen systems within the region and better prepare for future public health emergencies.
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spelling pubmed-104316002023-08-17 COVID-19 in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands: A timeline of events and lessons learned from March 2020–November 2022 Cash McGinley, Haley L. Hancock, W. Thane Kern-Allely, Stephanie Jenssen, Melissa Chutaro, Emi Camacho, Janet Judicpa, Pedro Okumura, Kazuhiro Muñoz, Nick Ademokun, Oluwatomiloba M. Brostrom, Richard PLOS Glob Public Health Research Article The US-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPIs) experience many health disparities, including high rates of non-communicable disease and limited health resources, making them particularly vulnerable when SARS-CoV-2 began circulating globally in early 2020. Therefore, many USAPIs closed their borders early during the COVID-19 pandemic to give them more time to prepare for community transmission. Routine virtual meetings were established and maintained throughout the pandemic to support preparedness and response efforts and to share information among USAPIs and support partners. Data collected from these regular virtual meetings were gathered and disseminated through routine regional situational reports. These situational reports from March 27, 2020 to November 25, 2022 were reviewed to develop a quantitative dataset with qualitative notes that were used to summarize the COVID-19 response in the USAPIs. The initial surges of COVID-19 in the USAPIs ranged from August 2020 in Guam to August 2022 in the Federated States of Micronesia. This prolonged time between initial surges in the region was due to varying approaches regarding travel requirements, including fully closed borders, repatriation efforts requiring pre-travel quarantine and testing, quarantine requirements upon arrival only, and vaccine mandates. Delaying community transmission allowed USAPIs to establish testing capacity, immunize large proportions of their populations, and use novel COVID-19 therapeutics to reduce severe disease and mortality. Other essential components to support the USAPI regional COVID-19 response efforts included strong partnership and collaboration, regional information sharing and communication efforts, and trust in health leadership among community members. Valuable lessons learned from the USAPIs during the COVID-19 pandemic can be used to continue to strengthen systems within the region and better prepare for future public health emergencies. Public Library of Science 2023-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10431600/ /pubmed/37585385 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002052 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Cash McGinley, Haley L.
Hancock, W. Thane
Kern-Allely, Stephanie
Jenssen, Melissa
Chutaro, Emi
Camacho, Janet
Judicpa, Pedro
Okumura, Kazuhiro
Muñoz, Nick
Ademokun, Oluwatomiloba M.
Brostrom, Richard
COVID-19 in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands: A timeline of events and lessons learned from March 2020–November 2022
title COVID-19 in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands: A timeline of events and lessons learned from March 2020–November 2022
title_full COVID-19 in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands: A timeline of events and lessons learned from March 2020–November 2022
title_fullStr COVID-19 in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands: A timeline of events and lessons learned from March 2020–November 2022
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands: A timeline of events and lessons learned from March 2020–November 2022
title_short COVID-19 in the US-affiliated Pacific Islands: A timeline of events and lessons learned from March 2020–November 2022
title_sort covid-19 in the us-affiliated pacific islands: a timeline of events and lessons learned from march 2020–november 2022
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10431600/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37585385
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002052
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