HSA prepared for worst, say officials
(CNS): As Cayman continues the battle to prevent the coronavirus taking hold in the community and the potential indiscriminate spread, officials from the Health Services Authority said they are still preparing for the worst case scenario. From sourcing buildings that could be used as overflow hospitals to massive orders of personal protective equipment (PPE), healthcare professionals are focused on saving lives.
Health Minister Dwayne Seymour, who has played a supporting role in the management of the pandemic, deferring to the professionals in his ministry and the premier, released a statement Sunday outlining the plans in place to deal with community spread of COVID-19 at the HSA.
Seymour said that the stringent measures by government and the plans implemented by the National Emergency Operations Centre had made a significant impact in mitigation and containment efforts, placing “the Cayman Islands ahead of other regions in the fight against this pandemic”.
The minister said the HSA was also taking action to keep the community safe and to provide the necessary response to any significant community spread and worst case scenario.
He said the HSA has developed a COVID-19 action plan setting out a step by step approach to coordinate resources, response and clinical outcomes.
It has established a multi-disciplinary task-force of clinicians, physicians, nurses, allied health professionals from a broad range of specialties. These professionals meet daily to review and monitor global trends, relevant clinical data and guidance, develop best practices, policies and procedures and strategies for patient management and effective clinical decision making.
A COVID-19 hospital operations team, including staff from clinical, operational, finance, human resources, supply chain management, facilities, also meets daily to drive a coordinated response plan with representation from the Sister Islands.
The HSA has set up a flu clinic (see details below) but people are still required to call first before presenting at the clinic. HSA CEO Lizette Yearwood has said that people should call 911 in an emergency and alert the operators if they believe they have COVID-19 symptoms.
Since the hotline opened on 15 March, the team has handled 1,434 calls, which the minister said fell to 50 on Saturday, which he said was the lowest volume of calls in a day, contradicting a lower figure he had given on Thursday, when he said that calls had fallen to 41. The minister also claimed that the dedicated flu clinic was among the most significant initiatives that the HSA had created.
That clinic is open every day at the hospital in George Town and at the Aston Rutty Centre on Cayman Brac. The clinic has seen 228 patients in Grand Cayman and 19 in the Brac, enabling public health officials to control the movement and treatment of patients with flu-like symptoms in the appropriate clinical setting.
The minister also said the HSA has been focusing on testing, and despite reassuring the country that it has around 520 kits, this is nowhere near a sufficient amount. The premier, the chief medical officer and public health officials have all raised concerns about the inability of Cayman to test as widely as needed because of a chronic shortage of kits.
The most recent batch that arrived from the US at the weekend is still far short of the number required to test all those that should be getting tested, such as health care professionals, full time workers and those who recently returned from overseas. While the CTMH Doctors Hospital is also working to secure kits and do local testing, no date is set for when that will happen or how many kits it expects to get.
The minister said he wanted to reassure the public that HSA has sufficient quantities of PPE, but is sourcing additional supplies so that they are ready to deal with a worst case scenario.
There are some 219,00 gloves on the island but 938,000 have been ordered while another 83,000 surgical masks have been ordered to add to the 106,000 on hand. Some 300,000 N95 masks have been ordered, as there are only 3,500 here, along with a whopping 52,000 face shields with and without masks, as Cayman has only 360 at present. 5,000 goggles have also been ordered to add to the stock of just 500. The government has also ordered 71,000 isolation gowns as local stocks are currently around 2,000.
As the hospital prepares for the possibility of rampant transmission, doctors and nurses continue to deal with the usual health requirements of the population and emergencies.
Despite the lockdown, Cayman is continuing to witness significant numbers of car smashes. Four people have been killed on the roads just this month, which the minister said was “so tragic”, as he urged people to stay at home.
“Everything we are doing now is for your protection and survival. It is so important that we are all following the curfew regulations and shelter in place orders at this time,” Seymour added.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
The flight from the UK? Purpose? Will supplies from wherever be consolidated in time for a flight on Monday or Tuesday? What standard will these supplies be adhering to? UK? Chinese? European? Is there a bulk buying regime for small islands? Will there be fastidious hygiene for all connected with the flight? A traveler via Singapore endured thermometer checks constantly right off plane through to before entering the hotel room! Best practice is out there. We need to follow to be sure footed.
Leave John John alone and certainly stop dissing his Bible readings and prayers!! We need God now more than anytime. So, our Minister of Health believes in prayer and so do many thousands others here. If you don’t believe simply don’t pray but don’t tell me I can’t or that I can’t listen when he does!!
Minister Seymour is doing what ALL MInisters for decades should have been doing all along – listening to the trained professionals in their Ministries and take guidance from their expertise to make public policy!! That is how good governance has to be!! But Jim Bodden flipped that on its head 40+ years ago and it has never been the right way since!!
Dwayne Seymour doesn’t have to be a medical professional and he’s not but he’s listening to the experts and doing a great job in this particular crisis!!
Hope this teaches them all how to properly run their Ministries and make our society better in all ways!!
Dwayne Seymour doesn’t have to be a medical professional to be Minister of Health, but he does need to have some understanding of what he’s being advised to do and be able to speak with authority and confidence when he does. He can barely read his prepared statement properly and stumbles over words. It’s obvious he doesn’t actually understand what he’s saying when he uses slightly different words than what is probably on the paper, thinking it’s the same thing but changing the meaning in an important way.
Every time he starts to answer a question or says he’d like to add something after the Premier or Chief Medical Officer answer a question I cringe. His off the cuff interventions are just as bad. His math on what percentage of the population could be tested with the new kits was off by a factor of 10 (6-7%, when it’s actually 0.6-0.7%) and he loves to start his comments with “in my opinion” and what comes next is never in line with recommendations from the people who know what they’re doing (e.g. about masks). The way he spoke about the orders for additional PPE was irresponsible and could have been severely misinterpreted.
He’s completely out of his depth and it is embarrassing for him personally, for the Government, and for the entire Cayman Islands.
To: “…i pray for vaccine and treatment..”
Why wait for the last resort?
you can simply gargle, irrigate your nasals with hydrogen peroxide, or salt with iodine, or water with antiviral natural remedies. It starts in the upper respiratory system- Easy to reach by gargling, irrigating and inhaling and hopefully, if not eliminate but seriously weaken the virus. Have been used for centuries as prevention and treatments everywhere else in the world. Ask your great grandma.
CNS: As with all home remedies, this may do some good but without scientific evaluation, it should not replace everything the experts are telling you about social distancing and hand washing or sanitizing. (This is not directed at you but other readers.)
Asking Dwayne to lead by example. Good luck with that. He cannot even answer a question. Please stop with the bible verses already. Not everyone on this island believe in fairytales.
Isn’t tomorrow the 1st of Gaypril? Let’s see if that gets a mention again. I highly doubt it.
The government has spent years mismanaging our local assets all whilst flooding our shores with thousands of immigrants, giving concessions to dubious entities, driving the cost of living through the roof, ignoring the will of the people, not to mention all the proclivities that we are supposed to turn a blind eye to and suddenly, “Everything we are doing now is for your protection and survival.”
Bit bloody late now, Seymour. Fortunately, we have elections in the near future and this cabal will never, EVER be elected again. NEVER!
I am hoping for a genuine awakening among the people as to how this sorry state of our leadership vacuum has occurred and we are looking for new inspiration; leadership that is totally fresh blood.
In the meantime, let us all stay safe using facts and common sense, not fear and heavy-handedness.
How come these lunatics lock down the airport and then allow a plane from the UK?
We are assuming that everyone on this plane has already served a satisfactory period of quarantine?
Who are these people and where will they be going? What are they here for? Who will be leaving? Or are we not allowed to know what we pay for? Let us not forget that our governments are funded by …….us, the people. We have a right to know what is going on when it is our dime that is being thrown around.
Perhaps the press can ask these hard questions at the next “avoid and evade” session?
I too am praying for a vaccine. A vaccine against bullshit. Actually, it already exists. It is called the TRUTH.
Well said 8:46
Go get some mental
health counseling.
Mental help Hot line is open they say. Start counseling now.
The results are anecdotal at this point but there is a fairly large clinical trial going on in New York and other places for Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromicin (Z-Pack). There are a growing number of reports showing it’s effectiveness when used as a compassion last resort treatment.
I pray this or another treatment will prove effective while we wait for a vaccine.
https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/macomb-man-with-covid-19-says-hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin-saved-him
This treatment should be used as a last resort as the combination can have some serious side effects in itself.
Our Minister of Health needs to start leading by example.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/30/coronavirus-cases-could-soar-blacks-latinos-and-native-americans/2917493001/
Oh stop it with the fear.
Take a look at what is happening up in the US.
The entire private sector has mobilized with the government to challenge this Hidden Enemy head on.
They are not talking doom and gloom, rather they are rising to the challenge.
Some leadership please!
By the end of today, this virus (just starting) will have killed more Americans than all of those KIA from the last two decades in Afghanistan – where the “morality police force” now hurriedly negotiates surrender to the same regime that harboured those responsible for 9/11.
My Pillow has converted one of their pillow making plants into a mask manufacturer.
Ford has converted one of their factories into a ventilator manufacturing plant
Distilleries are converting their operations to make hand sanitizer.
The commenter is correct, but don’t let that stop your totally appropriate segue to 9-11 and the morality police.