The Covid-19 community spread in the Northern Marianas shows no signs of abating as Saipan recorded its single-day high of 22 local positive cases on Thursday.

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation said the individuals were identified and confirmed through surveillance testing on Wednesday.

The individuals have been isolated and are actively monitored.

Including one individual tested through travel screening, the CNMI saw 23 new positive cases on Thursday bringing its total to 431 cases since March 28, 2020.

Since October 28 this year, there have been 140 new cases, of which 92 were identified via contact tracing, 38 were identified via community testing, and 10 were identified via travel testing.

A total of 744 Covid-19 tests were conducted on November 17, 2021, which comprises travel testing and surveillance testing.

Governor Ralph Torres, meanwhile, reiterated the importance of vaccinating children from Covid-19 as he believes the virus is not going to leave the CNMI or even the rest of the world anytime soon.

Torres emphasized the need to continue vaccinating children ages 5 to 11 and urged adults who are still unvaccinated to get the shots now.

He said Covid-19 is going to be part of the norm in the CNMI sooner than later. "We don't want to miss that boat to get vaccinated," Torres said.