400 ‘screening’ samples in testing queue
(CNS): Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee had no test results to give at Tuesday’s COVID-19 press briefing because the testing machines were going through “scheduled maintenance and quality checks” again, he said. However, around 400 samples have now been taken from front-line hospital workers in the first batch of ‘screening’ samples given by people with no symptoms of this novel coronavirus, which are now waiting to be tested.
These results will be ready before the end of this week and will be the first real indication of the likely extent of the spread of the virus in the Cayman Islands, De Lee said. He explained that a significant number of samples will continue to be taken over the coming days and in less than two weeks after starting to take screening samples, the numbers should have reached well over a thousand.
The CMO said the first groups to be tested in this new ramped up testing programme would include all patients being admitted to, or already in, hospital for any condition, those whose healthcare provider believes may have some similar symptoms to those connected to COVID-19, as well as all the healthcare providers and other front-line hospital workers, who have already begun to come forward to be tested.
He said inmates and prison officers will also be tested as a separate baseline and part of this expansion of testing, which will grow over time.
Front-line people will be the first to be screened, Dr Lee explained, but officials in public health are thinking about other larger groups of people that could be screened for the virus, such as a proportion of the construction industry or a more random population survey may be undertaken.
The need for wider testing now feeds into managing the health aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the strategy to relax the curfews. Once the Public Health Department is able to see results in significant numbers from those who are not showing signs of illness, it will not only be able to contact trace and isolate those who are positive but also begin to understand how prevalent COVID-19 is in the community.
This information is what will eventually allow the government to shape its policy for slowly easing the restrictions and, phase by phase, re-start the domestic economy.
“We are waiting to see what the initial results of the first screenings show, really to guide us over how much further effort to put into this and in which particular direction we should go,” Dr Lee said. “We have not yet got a hard and fast protocol for what the future of testing will be.”
Premier Alden McLaughlin pointed out how important these screening tests will be to informing his government’s decisions because the current test results give a distorted picture of the likely spread of the virus in Cayman. He said some people think we are “really in trouble” because the rate of testing at the moment is some 8-9%.
But the premier said that he did not think this was really a representative percentage of the entire population, given how widespread the virus is likely to be. He noted that the only people tested so far have been those who are sick or their direct contacts, and they had even expected that number to be higher.
“A broader sampling of people who are at least on first blush healthy will give us a better indication of the likely incidence of the virus in the community,” he added.
During Tuesday’s briefing the premier again said that if the results from the increased testing show that the virus is not widespread in Cayman, then the restrictions can start to be lifted. But he warned that easing restrictions too early was dangerous. Testing front-line staff who appear not to be sick will give a real indication of the prevalence of COVID-19 here and help government to make safe decisions, he said.
One of the premier’s greatest fears, he revealed, is that there is a large number of front-line workers who have the virus but are asymptomatic. And the only way to know what that number might be is to test.
“We believe that will give us a pretty good idea in terms of risk and allow us to make assessments about what we should and should not be doing in terms of furthering or lessening the restrictions on the movement of people,” he said.
McLaughlin has also said on a number of previous occasions and repeated the position Tuesday is that Cayman is in a position to watch what other countries do and see what appears to work before making decisions here. He said it was important to learn lessons, not just from the successes but also the mistakes. He said said that one country Cayman would not be following suit with was the United States.
See the press briefing in full on CIGTV below, set to start at Dr Lees remarks:
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Health, Medical Health
CNS: I have tried sending questions to both you, the Compass, and the CIG website and I realize that not all of questions can be asked but I would like to know if it is possible to ask the Premier or the CMO this question please..
We have a town hall or school hall in every district, We have 200,000 test kits and from what I gather somewhere in the region of 12 PCR Machines. Why not set up drive thru’s or walk up testing centers in each district and get as many people tested as possible. We could knock this out in no time..We are sitting around waiting for someone to call the FLU-Line or show up at the hospital with symptoms..WHY?????? By that time they have already infected other people…Are we waiting on a few more deaths to happen? What about the ones that are asymptomatic that are spreading it..None of these are being tested and could be spreading it around the island unknowingly.
I am getting concerned now that the CMO and the Premier are trying hard to keep the positive numbers artificially low and dragging this situation out to make us look good to the outside world. Bermuda without as many test kits as us have already test 1000 and we can’t seem to test more than a few a day..What the hell are we waiting on???
We are small enough that if we need to we could test everybody within a month, be able to identify and isolate in the hotels, the asymptomatic and full blown cases. The recovery period would probably take us another month and by then we would have flatten the curve and can get out from under this lockdown and open up our domestic economy and get people back to work..This is not rocket science, people!
Why is so difficult for the press to ask the hard questions and not the same old, repeated questions everyday? Everyday Trump is hammered with hard questions and the reporters take their licks from him and come the next day armed with more “real questions” that need answered whether or not they have to take the insults from him again. I get the feeling that this whole question and answer session is no more than when the Government handed out pieces of paper at the Cruise meetings which were sanitized before they were asked to the platform..
No press conference tomorrow but we may have 400 results for you sometime next week…really Dr. Lee??
Let’s put the pressure on for more testing. We know this is the only way to slow this virus down..
Amen!!!
Oh, dear…this has been covered already…they have no qualified personnel to conduct the testing…
It’s not even about shutting down the virus. That is impossible unless we never leave nor do we let people back in again.
What should be done is testing so we can get back to enjoying ourselves. Fixing our homes, letting our children play on the beach and get an education, make a few bucks, drink some rum with friends.
What I’m worried about:
Cancer patients not getting treatment or persons not getting a diagnosis quick enough for effective treatment.
My young children not understanding why they can’t see their friends. Their nightmares of a virus under their bed. Their lack of vitamin D and vitamin outdoors. Children from 0-1 need- NEED all those germs outside to build up an immune system for life. Studies have concluded that those babies kept from germs has led to an increase in childhood cancers.
The diseases breeding in our pools. The mosquitos breeding in the many abandoned pools. The cost burden to fix the pools. People don’t have money to pay more strata or out of pocket costs.
The many fishermen living on their boats and dumping who knows what into the water.
The dump. The dump. The dump. The dump.
The burglaries will rise with people out of work.
Everyone’s mental health who have went along with the plan only to keep getting civil liberties taken.
What I’m not worried about:
Covid-19. We can’t hide from it forever. It’s here to stay. If you are at risk, and I truly feel bad for you, you may have to be the one who takes precaution. Just like everyone with a compromised immune system did well before corona.
Peace out.
12:34 pm: Actually, you seem to feel that only people with compromised immune systems are at risk. As we find our more about the virus, our information in that regard is being constantly proving surprising and worrying:
1. Some people with excellent immune systems, it turns out, are among the most vulnerable. They develop what is called “Cytokine storms”, which is basically when the immune system goes into overdrive and attacks a person’s organs. Doctors on the front line have reached this conclusion about some of the cases that they are seeing, with such persons in such extreme medical conditions that they are ultimately die.
2. I would protect my children from the virus, as the evidence is that children with perfectly good immune systems are falling prey to the virus and dying.
3. The grand parents of those same children may or may not be at risk. We want to save those lives, that are so essential to the wellbeing of those very children that you speak about.
So don’t “feel bad”, however sincere you may or may not be, for the people with compromised immune systems — feel concerned for everyone.
You and I really don’t know how we would react to the virus should we come in contact with it.
Your post would be useful if your replaces the word “some” with actual numbers. Look at Sweden.
5:17 pm; yes, let’s look at Sweden.
Your info is out of date, obviously:
As of today, Sweden had 192 deaths per million. The US with all its missteps has 144 deaths per million.
Sweden have had a rude wake-up call and had to reverse its laissez-faire position.
Even so, Swedes are now still concerned that Sweden needs to tighten up more, with The strategy has coming under fire from some of the country’s scientists.
From the UK Guardian newspaper dated April 15:
“A group of 22 doctors, virologists and researchers on Tuesday criticised the health agency in an op-ed published by Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
‘The approach must be changed radically and quickly,” the group wrote. “As the virus spreads, it is necessary to increase social distance. Close schools and restaurants. Everyone who works with the elderly must wear adequate protective equipment. Quarantine the whole family if one member is ill or tests positive. Elected representatives must intervene, there is no other choice.’”
(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/15/sweden-coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-1000)
Stop making up and spreading lies. If anyone wants to check Sweden’s progress, just go here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Sweden
In particular, look at these graphs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/graph/png/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Sweden/0/fb22dd01b572c08d7d45314573bdc703fa695cb2.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/graph/png/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Sweden/0/f3dae5274e328cf19530645548c3a2003b99e039.png
As even a child can see, the number of deaths and the number of hospitalisations is falling.
Yes, it is incredibly mind-wrenching to think that a nation did not run with all the other lemmings of the cliff and is fine, but that is what the facts say.
If you want to read a sane approach to this virus, the Swedish Public Health Agency provides one (click on English link in the upper right):
https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/the-public-health-agency-of-sweden/
I am aware of the Wikipedia info, which is actually consistent with what I said.
Quoting from Wikipedia, more than 200 persons per million have died in Sweden, with total cases per million population at 1,659 ( as at today’s Worldmeter Coronavirus figures (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/)
This compares to other Scandinavian countries:
Finland, which is the real rockstar, 31 deaths per mil pop. With 773 cases per mil;
Norway, 35 deaths per mil, 1,354 cases per mil.
Denmark, 68 deaths per mil, 1,394 cases per mil.
Finland’s Prime Minister, like our Premier, is not resting on her laurels. She just announced continuation of restrictions:
“Emergency legislation is to remain in force until at least 13 May to help fight coronavirus, announced Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Monday evening.
She said that the measures taken had been effective, but they should be extended into May to prevent an upsurge in coronavirus cases.
“I want to thank all those Finnish people and businesses that have kept to the restrictions and thereby protected the health of their loved ones,” said Marin, who added that Finland is going to ramp up testing in an effort to control the spread of the virus.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finland_extends_coronavirus_emergency_measures_to_mid-may/11283446
And by the way, your Wikipedia source also noted new restrictions in Sweden. You need to read the whole article. Some of the new restrictions are, as quoted in Your Wikipedia source:
On 11 March, the same day as the first Swedish death to COVID-19, the Swedish government passed a new law, limiting freedom of assembly by temporarily banning all gatherings larger than 500 people, with threat of fine and prison.[57] The ban will apply until further notice.[58]
On 27 March the government announced that gatherings of more than 50 people were banned.[59][60]
Again, on the 11th of March, the karensdag, the unpaid first day of sick leave, was temporarily discontinued in an effort to encourage people to stay home if they were experiencing symptoms that are consistent with COVID-19.[61]
On 13 March, the government decided to temporarily abolish the demand of a doctor’s certificate for 14 days for people staying home from work due to illness (i.e. sick pay period). Previously a doctor’s certificate was needed after seven days.[62]
On 24 March 2020, the government introduced new restrictions to bars and restaurants requiring all service to be table service only. Restaurants were also recommended to increase the space between the tables.
Venues that do not adhere to the new restrictions could be shut down.[63][64]
Beginning on 1 April, all private visits to nursing homes was outlawed by the government. Many municipalities had already forbidden such visits.
There are also travel restrictions.
But you can read all about those and other restrictions.
I know it is frustrating, but we have to face facts—the only way to beat this highly virulent virus is to stay home until the government has a proper handle on the status of our population a d can make informed decisions. This is just what the people of Finland are doing, right now, despite their remarkable achievements.
Let’s look at the EU vs US….thats a more apples to apples approach
Us 800,000 infected out of 370m 50 k dead
Eu 1.2 million out of 460 m. 120k dead
Eu has done more yet more cases more dead
4:20, I did not like the tone of your comment.
> Did you ask yourself why healthy people develop “Cytokine storms”? Always ask WHY? WHY? WHY?
> Did you know that some form of coronavirus has been in every flu vaccine since 2013 season?
> Did you know that all front line workers have been required to have an annual flu vaccine and do you know healthcare workers are disproportionally in the death stats for C-19?
> Do you know that YouTube and Facebook removes all articles and videos that explore this theory?
Could the death rate in C-19 be linked with previous flu vaccinations? This is a million dollar question that will never be answered.
All people in old folks communities are vaccinated to their teeth. When they started dying in droves in Seattle and other places, I asked myself why.
5:35 pm: sorry you did not like the tone of my comment. That is your privilege. But I wasn’t trying to please or displease anyone. Just trying to get to the truth.
You asked about age breakdown on Covid-cases.
That info is actually available online. Just Google it for different localities.
Take China, which has had the longest experience with the virus: the death rate published as at 18 March in Business Insider:
10 to 19 years, 0.2%
20-29, 0.2%
30-39, 0.2%
40-49, 0.4%
50-59, 1.3%
60-69, 3.6%
70-79, 8%
80+, 14.8%
Having said that, to me numbers don’t matter if you are the person infected with the virus. Everybody’s life is precious, at every age.
Any statistics coming out of China are so far from the truth that they cannot be used in any argument no matter which side you are on!!
You are suffering from severe anxiety. Fear of death and obsession with covid19 statistics to be precise. You’re not alone. NYC Governor rightfully pointed out “..an entire generation facing PTSD”.
Please mental find help. It is offered in Cayman. Or watch Netflix. “Unorthodox” is a surprisingly good movie.
5:25 pm: your questions on the causes of cytokine storm can be found on a number of websites, including WebMd;
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200417/cytokine-storms-may-be-fueling-some-covid-deaths
Here is the bottom line:
“Researchers aren’t sure what percentage of severely ill patients will die from a cytokine storm, or even why some people who are infected will go on to have this reaction, while others won’t.”
I’m not going to hide forever. Neither should we.
12:34, let’s see how we can help you:
1. The vitamin D your children need — how about having them get 15 minutes of sunlight per day on a porch or backyard? Trust me, that will work.
2. Playing in the backyard should provide sufficient germs.
3. You can eventually fix your pool, but lives cannot be replaced.
4. You are worrying about civil liberties, rather than welcoming strategies to keep us alive. Seriously?
5. Try to get creative while you have time with your families—there was a time that we did not have transportation, that we were confined to our houses after sunset because of nothing else to do, or mosquitoes, or we had no television, yet we survived and went on to build an enviable island nation.
6. As you spend the time with your family wisely and creatively, try to model for your children the traditional Cayman spirit of cooperation, unselfishness, and community welfare.
6. Consider that someone in your household could be at risk but you simply do not know.
All of your post is laughable. But Number 6 is the most laughable considering you lot want to stop your own gay country men and women from marrying. Not to mention the second an expat questions anything suspect you scream “there are flights leaving daily”.
Keep hiding from something that will not disappear. I hope you enjoy staying indoors and self isolating forever.
12:34 pm, you sound like a person who is fairly young. So you would likely be in the 20 to 40 age group. As it turns out, you are among a vulnerable age group.
I was just listening to a scientist who has been investigating a vaccine for coronaviruses explain that today.
Young children are also vulnerable. See the story about the five-year-old in Detroit who died of complications after diagnosis with coronavirus. She was on a ventilator for two weeks after developing a rare form of meningitis after diagnosis. Her symptoms began with a sore throat. From what I can gather from reports, her parents were blindsided. They though she had a strep throat.
The first case of meningitis associated with the coronavirus was reported in the UK on April 15. He was a 24-year-old man. He had been brought into hospital due to convulsion accompanied by unconsciousness. He was subsequently diagnosed with aseptic encephalitis with the virus in his cerebrospinal fluid.
This was reported in Science Direct. You can Google it.
Included in the report was a warning that the infection with the virus could have neuro-invasive potential, with some patients showing neurologic symptoms such as headaches, nausea and vomiting.
See an article below explaining vulnerability of different age groups:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2020/3/23/21190033/coronavirus-covid-19-deaths-by-age
To quote parts of this article: “The conventional wisdom says that kids and young people may be fine even if they get infected, with the risk of a case being more severe increasing with age….
“To be clear, nobody should feel invulnerable to the coronavirus. Young people are going to contact the disease, a not-insignificant percentage of them are going to get very ick, and a smaller number will die.”
The bottom line is that “Different age cohorts have different vulnerabilities to Covid-19, but nobody’s risk is zero.”
Yeah, they tell you about the horrible symptoms which they blame on C19, but not a word on his vaccinations history.
Doctors and scientists have to find answers why manifestation of C19 is so different among people. There got to be a reason.
Then fine, you keep hiding for the rest of your life because it’s not going away. I’m going to enjoy the life I have left in the meantime.
How many are from pool cleaners?
I see Dr Lee still apologetic about inviting infected people to go into government-supervised isolation.
I think this is the biggest mistake of the containment strategy. As I have said over and over, the typical Cayman household does not provide for sufficient isolation of sick people from the rest of the household.
Once the government allowed the virus into our islands they were obligated to properly contain the spread. They have failed to do that and we are all paying the price.
By the way, Alden is right in holding the course. Let us be patient.
It is true that a few people are asymptomatic and other people have minimal symptoms. However, it can be fatal for some people.
To express that as a minor percentage of the population is simply to coldly disregard the tragedy that those deaths represent for the families and the close knit Cayman Islands.
Even one death is too many.
What if that one death were you?
You, me and every living thing on this planet are going to die. Just a matter of when. If we adopted your approach across all the risks in life then no one should be allowed to drive or ride in any kind of transportation from cars, buses, planes, trains, boats and even bicycles and horse drawn caraiges. No one should be allowed to smoke, consume alcohol or excessively fatty foods or even processed sugar for that matter. Better to be safe than sorry, don’t walk along the road or under a tree or go swimming, skiing, or golfing. Sounds like great existence, but even one death isn’t worth the risk.
Realistically, if pool cleaners and gardeners want to get tested and are willing to isolate themselves in order to work then I support the idea. They practice physical distancing in the normal workplace anyway.
If any of these panel morons talk about ramping up testing again while also giving everyone breaks and weekends off and never getting any tests done I’m going to lose my mind.
Oops, they did it again 🙊🙈🙉
Why is our recovered so low? Are positive asymptomatic waiting for testing? Did Alden sell too many test kits?
The great unspoken of course is this – there has never been an approved vaccine against any coronavirus in history. Don’t shout at me, just do some research. They don’t exist. The closest we came to was SARS, but before it could be properly trialed, the virus was contained by strict measures and didn’t spread. However in testing, it was killing animals for fun. (even the bloody flu hasn’t been killed off by us and we’ve had how many years?!)
So, here’s a question for Wendy to ask the panel – what’s the plan? Because there most likely isn’t going to be a vaccine, certainly not one that works for everyone and certainly not one that will be available before 2022 (really)
We are killing ourselves economically to prevent potential death of what rate? The more all the world learns, the less deadly these disease becomes. However, it clearly is ridiculously contagious and well capable of hospitalizing far too many of us for local services to cope with all at once, hence the flattening curve stuff.
but whats next? Do we build additional purpose built ICU wards to cope with the likely ongoing threat of COVID19 for years/decades to come? I think so
Do we shut the economy without an end in sight to this for months to come? That’s not clever.
we should maintain social distancing protocols for at least until the Gov are comfortable any spike in hospitalizations can be handled, but we must start looking at keeping the majority alive economically – isolate the vulnerable and elders; build ICU units for future care; train and recruit the best health staff to facilitate; operate industry along social distancing; make face masks legally enforced when outside your home; etc.
but don’t be waiting for a vaccination before you can reopen your economy – because it’s not really likely to come at all, or at the very best, in 2022.
So – Wendy, ask them what’s the plan?
No one will kill you. CNS has posted at least 5 (mine) detailed comments, with links to studies, why there won’t be a vaccine in a foreseeable future.
“The Cutter incidence”, one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in US history that exposed several thousand children to live polio virus on vaccination is a grim reminder what happens when vaccine is rushed. 200,000 people were inadvertently injected with live virulent polio virus: 70,000 became ill, 200 were permanently paralyzed, and 10 died.
As it looks now C19 vaccination could cause secondary HLH (haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis) and no doctor or scientist in its right mind would want to repeat “The Cutter incidence”.
The best that could happen is development of some sort of treatment for critically ill C19 patients.
“So – Wendy, ask them what’s the plan?”
Is that a rhetorical question? I think you already have the answer to that question.
What is the real reason for the delay in starting the mass testing and isn’t this strategy? Why the wait and see approach strategy?
Did you read the article ?
The lab, and staffing of it, are not in good shape. They have never done more than 70 tests in a day. If we don’t start setting new records soon, the ‘mass testing’ strategy will be a fail. Hopefully CTMH will be allowed to open up testing soon.
Not to mention the fact that it’s having to be serviced or going through upgrades or whatever is going on and it hasn’t even ran that many tests… imagine ramping up testing how many times it’s going to be down just to fix it.
Didn’t John John say they have 4 machines??
Jon Jon needs to be gone gone.
The hotel has balconies.
My child is in there and I have no issue with the requirements and although she is very bored she is making the best of it.
She was tested yesterday. Waiting the result.
Kudos to all the staff running the facility. They have been doing their best to make a difficult situation bearable.
7.21am My daughter has 2 children aged 3 and 4 and If the staff were truly trying to make the situatation bearable why could they not let families outside in a restricted area for half an hour a day (separately). There cannot be many of them, and this would give them something to look forward to, stuck in a room for 18 days is pretty tough and even prisoners are allowed out for exercise every day. They were told 14 days before they left the UK this was not true. I just hope the test results will be ready tomorrow as promised.
Truth of the matter is people would rather stunt our children’s growth and not let them get outside for required vitamin D or required time to play and explore.
10am and 12:03 or you nuts?? Really you take the chance to expose these two children for your own selfish reasons. Lord forbid, that they test positive, because of your stupidity.
Either they get it now or down the line buttercup. But keep hiding for the rest of your not so enjoyable life.
So non-chalent until it actually happens to your family
ITS GOING TO HAPPEN! ITS NEVER GOING AWAY. wake up
7.21am You will need to be patient HSA advised today there is a “Backlog” and the results may not be ready until next week, that will be 3 weeks locked up.
Does maintenance take all day? I also thought that it takes 1-3 hours to get results.
So what if it does. Any piece of machinery requires routine maintenance and I would rather that than have it break down and lose the ability to test altogether.
They have four machines according to John John. Surely they all don’t need routine maintenance on the same day…
They will tell us any crap knowing that we will believe it…
Stalin’s Chicken Syndrome…
They have foru machines and decide to do routine maintenance on all of the them on the same day..You can’t make this shit up! Civil Service at its finest!!!
The great test kit caper happened almost two weeks ago, why have there been so few tests?
Everyday we are in lockdown has a massive economic impact. Stop dragging your feet and get testing so we can end this thing.
In such a rush to reopen, you do realize things won’t be back that quickly right? Depending on what business you are in there will likely only be a small number of people who will want to get out and about to do anything. In situation I won’t be spending any money on ANYTHING unless it’s essential to my life in the immediate present. No cleaner will come into my home, no “things” to enhance my life, no services to uplift my mood. Business as usually is a so far away I can barely see it.
UN estimates that a quarter of a billion that’s 250million people are likely to stave to death because of the economic collapse due initially to the virus pandemic and greatly exacerbated by the economic lock down. that is 50 million more than the estimated death toll if no actions had been taken on trying to isolate from the pandemic. Does that make sense?
Yes. Because the media doesn’t care about poor people. Nor do most people who think it’s perfectly reasonable to stay home not realizing their status in life allows them that luxury. You won’t hear one of these people say, “I’m concerned for the guy delivering my food.”
There is something I didn’t understand today. Alden said that he expected the numbers to grow because of the persons that were self isolating with their families were expected to contract the virus…Why the hell did they not quarantine the family member in the hotel so that they were not spreading it to each other and let the others self isolate at home?..Is the goal here to see how many we can get affected…SMH
Yes. We want as many positives as possible so that Alden can continually reset his “14 day timer” for no positive cases. We want to keep everyone locked up until December, and then we’ll open the borders when Dart insists he needs the hotel Christmas bookings.
Ha, you think anyone is going to have money to go on a holiday when we do reopen the airport… THINK…
IF the numbers are proven accurate, the virus MAY be less deadly…not exactly conclusive yet. Besides, are there antibody tests on island? I don’t believe so. So even if we wanted to act on this hopeful yet unproven info, we aren’t really capable at the moment.
No tests results available due to “Scheduled maintenance and quality checks”. Hmmm gotta wonder what that really means (the only testing machine they thought to order is broken down)? It’s unfortunate and painful to see people, who are obviously way in over their heads, bumble their way along from one update to the next with an astonishing lack of continuity, good judgment or even common sense. This was apparent early, with the head shaking disconnect in protocols being applied to people returning from the U.K. (who were testing negative and still forced into quarantine isolation for two weeks) versus those who were symptomatic, (walking into hospitals, dripping in sweat, and testing positive for the virus), then being advised to return home to their families/communities so long as they (as well as all of their family members/housemates) pinky swore to “self-quarantine” themselves for 14 days and to have absolutely no contact with other members in their community. Some were seen shopping for groceries, big surprise. Now the Premier states that today he can definitely confirm that there is “community transmission” going on. Duh, what did you expect guys?
Yet another example of lack of continuity is having the Premier touting that the goal is to “test test test” everyone with the hopes of completely “eradicating” the virus, while Dr. Lee seems to be purporting a much slower and gradual ramp up of testing starting with “frontline individuals” and then admitting that he is not even sure as to where to go from there. It’s like Trump vs Fauci part II. Here’s a question. Ok, we get why frontline health care workers are deemed urgent to next be tested, but why followed by a sample of construction workers and then maybe just random samples after that and no mention of the people who work in grocery stores or restaurants? These are the people that could potentially be the most risk to everyone else who are trying their best to comply with the curfews and keep as far away from everyone as they can. And I don’t just mean the people working the check-outs at the groceries. What about all of the workers in the back, handling the food and groceries, restocking the shelves, doing up the orders for delivery services? The delivery guys themselves? What about the people working at restaurants and other food service locations who are doing the hands on preparation of take-out orders? How about testing every police officer on the force as they are in daily contact with the public?
Might have to side with the premier on this one and say let’s just do Blanket Testing on everyone, it may be the only way to know for sure. Except, oh ya that won’t be possible until we get enough equipment and trained personnel to process all of the tests (which we may no longer have enough of either as they have given half of them away). Besides at a rate of 1000 tests per every week/two it is going to take a long long time to use up all of the available test kits. By that time the rest of the world will have already returned to normalcy. What is the point of fumbling along like this forever? I think we all deserve a solid, common sense plan that we can all buy into at this point. Something that actually makes sense.
The problem with blanket testing is…. they can’t get it done. They are failing miserably at getting testing results performed. We have 400 tests in the queue from last Friday, and “hope to have results later this week” … if we test 60,000 people, the results will be invalid by the time we get the them. We need Health City & CTMH to get online, so we can have some competent results-processing, then open up drive-thru clinics to ANYBODY who wants to get tested on their allowed-days out.
Yeah agreed re grocery stores.. Its already turning political. Don’t test my employees I don’t want to get sued or bad PR.
Watch the c19 indemnity law soon come out.
So we are testing front line workers who have the highest risk of exposure and prison inmates who have the lowest in order to give us an idea of the infection rate in the wider community?! Random samples would be more representative I would think.
Yeah I don’t understand the prisoner test either. Can we get an explanation on that?
Just because you test negative one day, you can get infected 2 minutes later.
What are they going to do if large sections of frontline staff are positive, what’s the contingency?
Military is coming
What we are going to watch is how the UK is plunging into an economic depression.
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/1266653/UK-coronavirus-economy-financial-markets-eu-economic-crisis-covid-19-latest-news
And when the UK and the EU are in a depression and desperate for funds, do you think the pressure on the offshore financial services industry is going to increase or decrease? Tourism used to be a fall back of a sort, but government policy is obliterating that industry. Covid-19 could well be the straw that broke the camel’s back and sent Cayman back into poverty.
And why should it change the warranted financial industry standards we are held to? And do you think the UK will be looking to Cayman to fill its coffers, with all the moaning and groaning going on here I would guess it might be the other way round.
I would rather be poor than dead or have a loved one die.
Nobody stopping you or anyone else from staying home and isolating until your heart is content.
6.53am If you have no job, nothing to eat and Govt is broke, you will die anyway.
We are all in the economic depression together. UK, USA, Canada.
Hope for a vaccine by end of next year or we will be in a hole for a decade.
Dr Lee, here’s a sneak preview of what you might find with your expanded screening samples, from an article published by the New York Times today just a few hours after your briefing:
https://nyti.ms/2xNoUOl
For those not able to access it, this reports results of two large-scale volunteer testing studies in California, finding that:
“Two new studies using antibody tests to assess how many people have been infected with the coronavirus have turned up numbers higher than some experts had expected.”
“In Los Angeles County, researchers conducted tests at drive-through sites and at participants’ homes and estimated that 2.8 percent to 5.6 percent of the county’s adult population carried antibodies to the coronavirus. There are 10.4 million people in Los Angeles County. If accurate, that would mean that 220,000 to 442,000 residents had been exposed. By comparison, only 8,000 cases had been confirmed in the county by early April, when the testing was done.”
“If the numbers prove accurate, the coronavirus may be much less deadly than originally expected, with a fatality rate more closely resembling that of a seasonal flu strain than a pandemic of profound lethality.”
“Nobody knows the truth — let’s be honest,” Dr. Ioannidis said of the prevalence figures. “But if I had to guess, I would say it is probably higher than our estimate.”
“For vulnerable people, like those in nursing homes, the virus obviously is a terrible threat. But the new data suggest most adults will experience milder to asymptomatic infections.”
“This is very consistent with the fact that the virus is very common but not killing at the rate we thought,” Dr. Ioannidis said.
***
So there we have it, as many commenters have written in these forums over the past month this virus is about as lethal as seasonal flu, only to be viciously shouted down by others, even attacked by the moderators! The Public Health England estimates (key word) of deaths and hospitalizations in Cayman held up at Friday’s government briefing as the basis for their policy actions are miles and miles from reality, a travesty.
As the Dr. quoted in the article says, the virus is a terrible threat to the vulnerable population. Let there be no question about that, from either side of the debate. With data like this, the CI Gov’t needs to immediately refocus its approach to targeted measures using all of its ample and idled manpower to protect the elderly and the sick and stop this insane and unsupportable police state lockdown of everyone else and the unnecessary destruction of businesses and families’ livelihoods it’s causing. The laudable objective of having no deaths in the islands, and a functioning local economy, are not mutually exclusive, and the latter objective can no longer be so crassly dismissed a reflection of one’s own “narcissism”.
You sir or madam are clearly in a minority on this thread, tread carefully. Most don’t understand your point of view but I’m glad you put it out there.
The article is a very good read. Thank you for sharing!
Pure Karma. Even fox is running the story.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/ohio-man-dies-from-coronavirus-after-online-posts-calling-it-bulls-and-political-ploy
Point to remember about FOX is although they advocate one position on air, they sent all their staff home in NYC telling them to stay home and don’t go out.
Talk about hypocrisy in the interest of high TV ratings.
Actually they have quite a few people on Fox with various opinions. The coverage has been mostly about the danger of coronavirus. CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS all downplayed the coronavirus as much as any other network.
https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/flashback-media-downplayed-coronavirus-called-it-less-serious-than-flu/
Nice video montage.
9:16 am : your comment, “CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS all downplayed the coronavirus as much as any other network.”, is simply not true!!!!
Unlike you and other readers, I NEVER listen to Fox. Their job depends on supporting Trump, and I cannot wait for Trump to depart the position he has so thoroughly used and abused.
I do listen to CNN and MSNBC religiously, and I have never heard them downplaying the virus. To the contrary they have tried diligently to get to the truth. And I do not need to source some web article that claims otherwise.
So please do not mislead people.
You just said you don’t listen to Fox so you haven’t a clue what they say or don’t say. Evidently you didn’t watch the video either. Yes CNN, MSNBC, NBC and CBS all downplayed the virus. Nobody can make you watch the video, but it doesn’t change the facts.
Seems like you don’t listen, period.
What a dark and disgusting article and comment. I’m 100% against the lock down strategy and I’m perfectly aware that the virus could kill me. I’m aware of many things that can kill me. I’m also aware there are other ways to handle the situation that are more logical. I accept a calculated risk everyday of my life when I step out my front door. I’m also aware that I am free to hide as long as I want without anyone ordering me to do it.
If you believe in Karma than believe it works both ways. Have a great day.
It is people like you that we need a vaccine…You don’t care about yourself but I care about my children and myself and you respect me and my family enough to stay away and not spread your infectious germs around..
It’s people like you who will pushing and shoving to get to the front of the vaccine line.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/ohio-man-dies-from-coronavirus-after-online-posts-calling-it-bulls-and-political-ploy
Karma can be tough
I have no problem with you as long as you sign a declaration saying if you get Covid you will not use any medical facilities and endanger medical staff by your stupidity and you accept your fate.
45,000 deaths plus in America so far. People certainly are dropping like flies every day in NYC and New Jersey. Over 1,000 deaths combined there yesterday.
That’s because of overwhelmed medical facilities…….
Detecting antibodies is the first step. Interpreting what they mean is harder.
Scientists who have looked at antibodies to other coronaviruses — both the common-cold causing (229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1 types) and SARS and MERS — found they persisted for at least a few years, but these studies were done on naturally occurring coronaviruses.
C-19 is very different. It is not natural or normal and this is why vaccination problems should be expected.
In natural coronaviruses the Antibody response indicated people were protected from reinfection for at least a few years. From then, protection might start to wane, not drop off completely.
Scientists and clinicians have no idea what will happen with this C-19 virus and the fact that they see C-19 harms people who were previously flu vaccinated should concerns them, but they are not [concerned]. They overlook the possibility that seasonal flu shots are potential contributors to the current outbreak.
A randomized placebo-controlled trial in children showed that flu shots increased fivefold the risk of acute respiratory infections caused by a group of noninfluenza viruses, including coronaviruses. (Cowling et al, Clin Infect Dis 2012;54:1778)
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/54/12/1778/455098
This information, until proved or disproved must be taken into consideration by those who lead nations to economic recoveries. It must be a part of epidemic prevention strategy so the nightmare the world is living right now won’t be repeated. For that to happen, the mentioned above studies must be mandatory in every country.
Does receiving influenza vaccination increase the risk of other respiratory viruses via phenomenon known as virus interference or not? Moving ahead with C19 vaccine without answering this question is a recipe for another disaster.
If you want to know why C19 is different, this is a good article to read:
Virologist Explains What The Coronavirus Does to Your Body That Makes It So Deadly https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sciencealert.com/why-is-this-coronavirus-so-much-more-dangerous-a-coronavirus-expert-explains/ampm
The bottom line is: “There are still many mysteries about this virus” the article says, yet it remains silent on the virus interference.
8:52, I believe it would be a good question to ask Dr.Lee. My bet, with all due respect, he would have no idea what it is all about. Yet, staying on top of the latest research and clinical updates when holding the Minister of Health or CMO positions should go without saying.
It’s becoming very clear who the tools are
Seems there are a disproportionate number who are commenting (complaining) on CNS
This shit is tiresome. Free the people.
Free the people and let us die.
The dump will kill you first. So far it’s killed more than covid has!!
It seems very odd selection to me. Hospital patients and prison inmates are not out in the community. I would much rather see us testing supermarket workers. Is there a sensitivity that they will spook people? Or that those workers (or their employers) don’t want to know the results if there is a bunch of positives? What about delivery drivers? These all seem more important to evaluating “community transmission” … Or has that goal changed again?!?
Agree 100% If you want to know how random it is check supermarket staff who have been working throughout . It would show maybe that hand cleaning an distance is all that is needed
By the way, unless the prisoner is being released explain why they need to be tested
It will be interesting to see if these military personal arriving from the U.K. will be subjected to the same protocol that the others arriving from there were subjected to. In other words, will they be tested for Covid and put into quarantine for 14 days like all of the students, etc were or will they be given an exemption on this because they are military. Let’s hope they do the right thing with them.
They are front line staff, tested in UK prior to the flight. They are in the fight for all the rest of us who have nothing better to do than complain about their dirty pools, buy stuff they actually don’t need and literally need a contractor to do everything for them. Sometimes one wonders if these snowflakes even know how to wipe their own behinds let alone wash their hands properly afterwards.
Idiot. Stop this crap, a test takes very little time so no need for 14 days quarantine.
And in any case, they will do what it takes to save lives, unlike the morons already here who don’t get social distancing and basic hygiene.
In Atlanta, Georgia it still takes 10 days to get a result. So don’t complain Bobo.
In the same press conference that announced the military, Governor Roper confirmed that they would do the mandatory quarantine.
Perhaps Wendy can ascertain the test results for the incoming BA passengers. I understand they will be available Friday and I certainly hope they are, as that will be 18 days they have been cooped up in a hotel room without being allowed a single breath of fresh air. Contrast this with the covid positive clusters who were allowed to stay in their own homes from day 1 without 24 hour security.
They can open their windows. No one is stopping them from getting fresh air just as long as it is not outside their room.