By Johnnie Rosario
(Tumon, Guam) Schools superintendent Jon Fernandez has decided to keep Agueda Johnston Middle School and Ordot Chalan Pago Elementary School closed tomorrow, September 24.
Mr. Fernandez, in a news release from Civil Defense, said workers will continue mitigating the mosquito problem in and around those campuses.
Harvest Christian Academy will resume classes tomorrow morning. The school was sprayed with regulated insecticide.
There are no new confirmed cases of Dengue. According to governor's spokeswoman Krystal Paco, she is unaware of any other suspected cases of Dengue awaiting laboratory confirmation.
Officials provide the following information for the public:
The DPHSS Event Community Health Outreach (ECHO) team continues to contact residents
within high-risk areas (200-meter radius of a confirmed case) to educate them on the dengue
virus as well as seek consent for spraying in and around their homes.
The community is reminded to do their part to minimize the spread the dengue virus. While
insecticide spraying is done initially in areas identified as high-risk, it is only a temporary
solution. Without removing breeding sites, mosquitoes can return. Insecticide spraying can also be ineffective if overused. Residents are urged to take precautions to prevent mosquito bites by applying insect repellant and wearing light-colored long sleeved shirts and pants.
The Guam community can reduce the number of new mosquitoes that carry dengue by
eliminating the places they lay eggs. DPHSS mosquito surveillance suggests that Aedes
albopictus is the mosquito spreading dengue on Guam. Aedes albopictus lays its eggs in natural and artificial water holding containers, such as tree holes, coconuts, bromeliads, water barrels, coconuts, trash, closed gutters, tarps, and tires. Generally, A. albopictus does not reproduce in large bodies of water such as ponding basins and reservoirs.
Why are these schools closed for a 3rd day?