With the discovery of two cases of community transmission in Yap on August 16, 2022, the Governor temporarily suspended work for all government non-essential workers and closed all schools for August 17-22 to prepare emergency response. Within the following 3 days, there had been 13 new cases reported. With the lead time following the COVID surge in Pohnpei and Kosrae, the people in Yap mitigated the effects of the oncoming surge by updating their vaccinations against COVID-19. However, the Yap Risk Communication & Community Engagement Team did expect Yap to enter a high COVID-19 surge when bus services resumed and government workers and students went back to school August 23. Public schools were again closed on August 30 as cases increased with continued transmission (cumulative case count of 747), though Yap High School and Yap Catholic High School remained open with COVID-19 mitigation plans and procedures in place. As of September 4, there have been 1821 reported positive cases in an estimated population of 11,241 (2021).
Yap was consistently reporting low numbers for new positive cases for the first week (under 10 daily cases) and continued to report numbers under 40 for the second week. The surge began to pick up speed then. A 49 year old man was admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 on August 25. The next day, Yap reported 65 new cases. And, August 27, Yap reported their first covid-related death, a 69 year old, unvaccinated man who passed away on arrival to the hospital. There have been 27 covid-related deaths in the FSM (23 in Pohnpei, 3 in Kosrae and 1 in Yap). There were 148 new cases and the hospitalization of an unvaccinated, 4 year old boy, reported August 30. There were 157 new cases and the hospitalization of a fully vaccinated and twice boosted 55 year old on August 31.
There have been more than 200 daily cases reported every day since September 1. The Governor of Yap signed a directive on August 31, 2022 providing up to 5 days (counting also weekends and holidays) of administrative leave to government workers who test positive for COVID-19 or need to provide care for an immediate family member who tested positive for COVID-19. Many healthcare workers have tested positive for COVID-19 resulting in a shortage of workers for medical response. Two Test to Treat sites in Rull closed early on September 3 for this reason, and the Hospital Outpatient Department, including COVID-19 testing, closed September 4. They also announced that Test to Treat sites will be unable to offer COVID-19 vaccination until enough health care workers are able to return to work. The next week or two will likely be the peak weeks for this initial wave of COVID-19 in Yap.
Update: The Yap Risk Communication Team reported under 200 daily cases for the first time in seven days. On September 7, they reported 184 new cases. There was 1 new hospital admission (total 20, 12 have been discharged). There was also 1 new covid-related death for a total of 2. There have been 2497 positive cases reported or 22% of the population. However, it is standard practice to count someone recovered if they reported positive more than 10 days ago. So, the recovered case count should be 600 making the percent sick at the current time 17%. We may begin seeing numbers coming down now.
Read more COVID-19 Surge in Yap.
