COVID-19 tests start with 14 new suspect cases
(CNS): Public health officials began local COVID-19 testing Monday with fourteen samples from members of the community suspected of having contracted the novel coronavirus. Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee said that the 30 cases from Health City Cayman Islands were also being run through the machine at the HSA after samples were taken from staff members there over the weekend. Cayman’s response to the pandemic has now moved into the testing phase. The country currently has around 480 test kits but is putting in orders for more.
Dr Lee said the jurisdiction is still hoping to contain the virus, assuming that it has not yet taken hold in the community. If the testing in the coming days begins to reveal that there is sustained transmission of the COVID-19 virus in Cayman, then they will move towards different mitigating measures, he explained.
The results will help the public health officials make decision about how Cayman deals with this pandemic, Dr Lee said, as he assured the public that the health authorities are taking the virus very seriously, as demonstrated by the effort going into preparations. He said that identifying where we are will only be done through “science and the figures”. Therefore, officials are awaiting results “and the patterns of results”, which in turn will direct the response.
Despite the need to undertake significant testing while still in the contain phase, in order to measure where we are, public health officials are sticking with the Caribbean Public Heath Agency (CARPHA) guidelines that restrict testing to those showing clear symptoms or with a recent travel history to a country with ongoing infections.
With Health City being ground zero for the first positive COVID-19 patient, who died this weekend, Public Health England experts have been in communications with the facility to help that hospital cope with the closure and re-opening, and they commended how things have been handled.
Dr Lee urged everyone to work towards protecting the wider community. In addition to the often repeated warnings about frequent hand washing and general hygiene, he warned people not to gather in dense groups.
While government has placed a ban on all public gatherings of 50 people or more, matching guidelines issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Lee pointed out that cramming 50 people into a very small room was just as dangerous, as he urged people to practice social distancing as one of the best ways to protect themselves and others from infection.
Meanwhile, more and more local businesses are adopting various measures that assist with social distancing. Foster’s Supermarket chain has introduced a special early morning shopping hour at every branch, starting at 6:00am, for the elderly, disabled and individuals at high risk of COVID-19, and asked others to respect the dedicated shopping hour. Hurley’s Supermarket is urging its customers to use its online delivery service. Both supermarket businesses continue to assure the community that their supply chains are fine and goods are arriving as normal.
Meanwhile, Credit Union is also introducing an early morning service period exclusively for the elderly and compromised customers.
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Category: Local News
After reading that PublMed article ( in my comment earlier) about virus interference, it made me think that may be the reason seniors get pneumonia is because the flu vaccine was heavily promoted for that age group, they were even offered a gift card to get a shot, in the US at least, and now they are experiencing “Vaccine derived virus interference was significantly associated with coronavirus and human metapneumovirus”?
(Influenza Vaccination and Respiratory Virus Interference Among Department of Defense Personnel During the 2017-2018 Influenza Season https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31607599/)
Soooo..what’s goin on with the Big Man Mac investigation?
3.15pm It’s been shut down for 3 weeks.
They are hiring a large workforce of work permit holders to sweep it under the rug. Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.
Interesting article for curious minds.
Even though
“Receipt of influenza vaccination was not associated with virus interference among our population. Examining virus interference by specific respiratory viruses showed mixed results. Vaccine derived virus interference was significantly associated with coronavirus and human metapneumovirus; however, significant protection with vaccination was associated not only with most influenza viruses, but also parainfluenza, RSV, and non-influenza virus coinfections.”
still good to know about such a thing as “virus interference”
“Receiving influenza vaccination may increase the risk of other respiratory viruses, a phenomenon known as virus interference.”
Influenza Vaccination and Respiratory Virus Interference Among Department of Defense Personnel During the 2017-2018 Influenza Season
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31607599/
We now understand that humans are 90% microbial but only 10% human. The average human has over 100 trillion microbes in and on their body, and many of the latest discoveries are challenging previously held ideas about good and bad bacteria. We are witnessing the shift from a World ruled by the antibacterial obsessed and non-stop antibacterial marketing, to one that has a heightened awareness of the importance of the microbial ecosystem (the microbiome). https://bigthink.com/amped/humans-10-human-and-90-bacterial
Microbes inhabit just about every part of the human body, living on the skin, in the gut, and up the nose. Sometimes they cause sickness, but most of the time, microorganisms live in harmony with their human hosts, providing vital functions essential for human survival. For the first time, a consortium of researchers organized by the National Institutes of Health has mapped the normal microbial makeup of healthy humans, producing numerous insights and even a few surprises. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-human-microbiome-project-defines-normal-bacterial-makeup-body
The advice and pleas flowing out of Asia and Europe are frighteningly relevant. We shouldn’t ignore them or panic. We need to hear them, learn from their mistakes, and stay home…even if it means forgoing our accustomed privileges for a short time.
And still the buses run!
Does anyone realize that the Costa Luminosa ship, from which the confirmed coronavirus case (and later death) was taken off, was allowed to disembark its passengers in Cayman on Feb 29? This was after 2 pax were taken off in Puerto Rico days before with “pneumonia”-type symptoms – they later tested positive also.
Also, this was after Italy had been flagged as a major source of the virus and had already commenced preliminary containment measures. But our authorities allowed that ship to disembark and passengers mingle freely!
Please review Cayman Compass on-line article Feb. 29 on this very matter! Present Government actions are encouraging but they seriously dropped the ball regarding that ship!!
It was also two days after barring the ship with Filipino staff isolation (not Covid) and creating international incident.
Stay home. it’s not difficult to comprehend. Stay home, stay with your family and lock away for 14 days. Sure, its going to be hard financially, psychologically and socially. But harder will be saying goodbye to the dead and not being able to attend a funeral. Sacrifices now. What is wrong with people? It is far better to overreact in hindsight than to ignore it in plainsight.
What?
Waiting for confirmation is what Italy did. Two weeks without symptoms means you might have it, feel fine, and not even know. You need to learn how this works.
Are swingers parties band? Asking for a friend
You must be the dumbest person alive
Surely so. The spelling says it all – “banned”
It’d be wierd staying 6 feet away…
You’d need the proper equipment.
Ain’t none of these dudes with that kinda equipment..
Now is not the time to be horny. People are dropping like flies all around the world and ppl like you are still making light of this catastrophic situation. smfh
Just use a condom. We don’t need anymore unwanted children, the grandparents May not be around to care for their children’s irresponsibility.
BA temporarily exempted until Sunday to get Cayman students in the UK home
Yes, I do know. Just because there are only 70,000 people on this island doesn’t mean you know all 70,000 people.
Better test those passengers on KX 103
The government can make all the decisions to reduce gatherings to less than fifty bit of ppl aren’t taking it seriously its not going to do any good. I see ppl still having plans for house parties and cramming these numbers in to tight spaces. These are likely then going to be the same ppl that complain and shun others if/when they contract the virus. It’s not forever ppl just practice some common sense act responsibly. The time is a drop in the bucket vs someone’s life.
Please report them to the police as soon as possible. Just standing around and watching it happen doesn’t help either.
Social distancing is not required by Cabinet order, but it should be. There are tone deaf parents allowing their teens to plan and attend boozy St Patty’s Day Costume Parties for tonight. You can’t make this stuff up.
But McKeeva committed a battery in front of many people and still wasn’t arrested and charged?
Report persons having gatherings of less than 50 people?
I have a chruch across the street. i’ll be up at dawn to ensure no one is there. i hope them song and dance and tambourines at home
I’m afraid we need to move away from CARPHA current guidelines, and do so quickly! We should follow the example of China and South Korea. Shut down yes, but with much more testing than CARPHA is suggesting.
What of the HSA Ambulance personnel who transported the now deceased patient to HCCI? Are they being tested? And the many other people they came into contact with? Otherwise this will get out of control very quickly!
What I want to know is who was responsible for allowing a cruiseship passenger to be landed and admitted to a Cayman hospital when the ship had already reported two cases of Corona virus onboard. If he needed urgent treatment he should have been transferred to Miami by air ambulance. This gross error of judgement has now needlessly placed the whole of the Cayman Islands in crisis.
While I tend to agree with your sentiments 9:41PM, it was inevitable that this virus would have found its way to Cayman. What is even more serious than this is, how many passengers have arrived here by air the past week and how many of these were tested. I am of the firm belief that we have many cases here at this time that we don’t know about.
Moses Kirkconnell as Minister of Tourism, Stran Bodden Chief Officer of Ministry of Tourism and Jospeh Woods Acting Director of Port Authority
When are we going to get the results?.
Each batch of 20 takes 36hrs for as long as testing supplies last. Then they need to go off island for verification by CARPHA for as long as the courier company will take samples (courier spat delayed last testing at worst time). The courier only runs on Tuesday and Thursday, and those confirmation results take days. Sounds like there are still 44 tests pending on top of the 20 locally done so far, for a total (yesterday) of 64 suspect cases. Dr Lee related there are (best case) only 28 ventilators on Grand Cayman (plus 1 at Faith Hospital). Let’s hope these results are all truly negatives. Policy so far has been absolutely reckless.
Each one of us has a duty to fight the spread. This is not something that Government or someone else can do for us.
For goodness sake everyone practice safe distance , hand washing, sanitizing , and no gatherings.
The outcome of those 44 tests will be critical. If some/most are confirmed positive, then we go have to go to the next level.
I guess we find out tomorrow morning……nervous….
Don’t wait for hindsight confirmation of what we already expect/suspect. That’s what Italy did. 45 people already present sufficient medical concern that they are being tested and where they, their families, and friends, went for the two weeks prior? Everywhere. The Unity team is waiting for our neighbours to catch up before publishing an approximation of where our numbers are…if they ever do. They waited two weeks to report the guy at Health City in order to preserve March Break itineraries. We already know the lengths this regime will go to suppress the truth for a dollar.
Let’s hope they are honest with the public and not lie about the results out of fear of panic.
Fear of panic? We have already done that. Just like a bad movie. Well done! slow clap for all
Fosters always have their FOOD exposed to the public. So someone can sneeze and cough on the food. What I like about Hurleys, they have their food inclosed, and they serve you the food. So, Fosters need to do alot of work in terms of food safety and sanitation. I am hearing good reports about Hurleys. Just don’t like how Hurley’s can make their staff have 15 minute lunch. They need to improve on that.
The quality of Hurley’s hot food has gone down drastically over the last few months and that miserable woman behind there serving. Changes need to happen
What are you talking about? The hot food is plentiful, a good variety, and always tastes good. As for your comment about “the miserable woman” – I stop by 3-4 times a week and I’m greeted with nothing but smiles and kind words. A little kindness and respect to those in the service industry goes a long way.
Don’t point at Fosters when the same happens at Hurley’s salad bar, Kirk’s, all the buffets on island at restaurants and hotels etc
Try the salad bar now.
No longer self serve
I’m pointing at Fosters countryside. Was there yesterday and not a sign of any sanitizer. I even overheard one of the girls on the cash register saying she had brought in her own, when a customer asked her about all the money she was handling.
How’s that “contact tracing” and mandatory quarantined going guys? Too many many kids let into school after skiing in Northern Italy? For God’s sake guys. We need mandatory lock down, and the longer we wait, the worse it is going to be.
Why is British Airways exempt isnt England a hot spot
The airport will be closed to international flights including the UK
Dummy