Premier battles with public demands
(CNS): Demands from the public for a range of services continue, despite efforts by government to urge people to stay home and only go out for essential reasons. So despite the clamour, local post offices will not be resuming any time soon as government has deemed the move too risky. The public has been calling for many services, from pool maintenance to money transfers businesses, to re-open but Premier Alden McLaughlin has stuck to his guns over services posing significant risks that are not essential.
Several people here receive pensions and social security from the UK and the US by cheques, and local businesses that are still operating have been asking how they are to pay each other and staff without being able to mail out cheques. While almost all local banks now operate an electronic transfer system to move money between the different retail companies, it appears that much of Cayman’s domestic economy still depends on cheques and the lack of a postal service is preventing bills and salaries being paid.
McLaughlin had said he was going to discuss the concerns with the postmaster general, but said on Saturday at the regular COVID-19 briefing that a decision had been made not to open the offices.
“We are not re-opening the post offices,” he said. “We will have to find a way to ensure those people who need access to whatever service they need to get it. But we think it is too risky and unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.”
Meanwhile. the dilemma of vehicle inspections will be addressed through the law rather than opening the DVDL. McLaughlin has said a “virtual session” of the Legislative Assembly is being planned, possibly for this week, where lawmakers will be asked to make a number of legislative changes to help Cayman survive this curfew in the short term.
Lawmakers are expected to change the pensions law to provide for a holiday on the mandatory payments that must be made by employers and workers into pension schemes, as well as possible access to the cash for employees in some of those plans in certain circumstances. They will also amend the traffic law to allow for vehicles to be licensed even without a certificate of inspection.
McLaughlin said he would check with the attorney general how this amendment would sit with the invalidation of insurance policies, but he said insurance companies should be following the law and if the law says a certificate of road-worthiness is not required, they should not need it to validate a policy.
Another dilemma posed by the curfew and the current economic challenges is the issue of eviction, the end of tenancy agreements and the need for people to find cheaper places to live. The premier has confirmed that people who have to leave their current rented home to move to another one can now secure a letter of exemption to move for a limited period of time.
He said they can ask for a “one-off exemption”, which has already been given to people who have made the case to the government’s competent authority that they have a legitimate need, and they have been cleared to move home during a set period of hours on a set day.
All curfew exemption requests should be directed to curfewtime@gov.ky while enquiries about the curfew in general can be sent to NEOC@gov.ky
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Category: Local News
I could clean my pool with a toothbrush in the time that it would take to read all of the comments where people are complaining about not getting their pools cleaned.
Anyone who lost their job because of the coronavirus should start a pool repair/cleaning service. When this eases off a bit, it’s likely to be like the number of “contractors” that suddenly appeared after Ivan.
No after this goes away we’re all going to get our own supplies and start doing it ourselves so this shit doesn’t happen again.
What ever
CNS, please. Neck your facts on US citizens pension chequez as stated in the article. A few years ago all US citizens sabroad we’re mandated to have an account to which funds could be transmitted. I stand to be corrected if this has now reverted to checks again
I cannot believe that people still using cheques. I never own a cheque book in my life, over 30 years. Always pay by online transfer, debit/credit cards. I don’t trust cheques as they have no proof if funds are in the account! It is time to scrap cheque books.
Tom, not everyone has a bank account.
Sure. I’m insane to think hospital beds will be needed for covid and not mosquito borne illness. Who am I to care?
Hon Premier: Thank You for all your efforts in trying to protect these Islands. Although I believe our only chance of containing this virus should have taken place in the form of 24/7 shutdown for at least 14-21 days and should have taken place 3-4 week ago, with only one person per household allowed out one day per week to make pick up for their families, and to avoid crowds this should have done in alphabetical order. this alone would have limited the possibility spread as there would be:
1. less people on the road, in supermarkets or pharmacy etc at any one time.
2. Facilities would only have to open two days per week, less contact with staff and customer, reducing risk of spread between customers and staff.
3. 14-20 days this virus would have died or community spread might have been nonexistent.
4. Persons tested positive and their families would have to be isolated? No questions asked, without this all efforts are effortless.
However, I fully believe that ‘the cow is out the gate and there is no rope to catch her’ and there is only a matter of days before we see the results of these mistakes.
On another note Hurricane Season is right around the corner and there is many home that is not ready for the season. As, a homeowner who is in need of these repairs, a seeing that every business sector is “exempt and deemed essential” I am hoping that you would allow hardware stores to open 1-2 days per week, not only will I be able to make necessary repairs that I would not normally get done but for sure it would keep me and people like me at home in addition we will get repairs done before the hurricane season because God forbid if a hurricane decent on us during this pandemic. PLEASE OPEN HARDWARE STORES 1-2 days per week.
So by making all the As to Ks go to the supermarket on the same day rather than one of three different days, you reduce crowding?
I hope CIG is ready. Even if they had no foresight, they have been warned many times. May be bartering C19 tests for food is in store for the territory.
“Former agriculture secretary issues stark warning that a ‘cascading series of events’ is disrupting the US food chain amid coronavirus pandemic as meat producers plan to cut jobs and products “.
Meat prices have doubled in the US and the supply is already limited.
What Cayman should urgently do right now is to start commercial fishing to supply population with enough fresh fish to survive during interrupted (potentially) meat import.
Home gardens should be also urgently encouraged. Every suitable piece of land should become a garden.
Eating from cans and boxes is OKay for a short period, but people’s health would be compromised in the long run.
Staying indoors is making C-19 epidemic WORSE. People need to realize sunlight CONTROLS the innate immune system by “programming” all the cells in your plasma and bone marrow.
4:28 Cayman does not have the marine resources to supply everyone on this island with fresh seafood. Our marine life is over-harvested as it is.
I don’t disagree with your idea that more people should garden. It gets you out into the fresh air and at the end of the day you know where your produce comes from. But you cannot feed a population of 65,000 + on the resources we have.
Only down voted because we CAN NOT rely on the oceans. They’ve already been pillaged.
lucky meat is not essential and is actually bad for your health, bad for animals and terrible for the planet
No but you can’t stock pile veggies and greens they will rot on you fast. See the problem?
And how do you think fresh produce moving about is any better for the environment? I agree we could all cut back but to make a stupid blanket comment like that isn’t helpful. Meat isn’t bad for you, ANYTHING over indulged in is. A balanced diet is what we all need and if we could do that more with gardens on island, wouldn’t that be lovely?
Thank you 6:16! You need some protein in your life and despite what vegetarians and vegans claim it is hard to get the right balance cheaply on their kind of diets. Yes everyone could cut back, particularity on red meat but that doesn’t mean give it up entirely.
Rock on, Hon. McLaughlin! You have our backs and we will always have yours.
LOL
This is 2020! Cayman is supposed to be the 5th largest financial centre in the world. And here we have businesses and people still using Cheques.
Get with the times. There is easy domestic transfer functionality with every bank. There are phone apps to make payment.
In just a month this lockdown has highlighted so many inefficiencies and inequalities.
Finally, Cayman’s evolution has begun!
Excellent job Premier !
Build our port!
Funny
To Whom It May Concern,
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is no evidence that COVID-19 can be spread to humans through the use of pools and hot tubs. Proper operation, maintenance, and disinfection (e.g., with chlorine and bromine) of pools and hot tubs should remove or inactivate the virus that causes COVID-19. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) states that controlling water quality is necessary to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases.
Pool maintenance has been deemed an essential service by Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, all the other counties throughout the state of Florida, and the US Dept. of Homeland Security.
We have all heard the announcement not to use strata pools. The spirit of this should be to prevent the congregation and commingling of people in a confined area and not that the use of the pool itself is a problem.
First off, we cannot overlook the potential health and safety hazards that preventing proper maintenance would represent. It is required by law to maintain the clarity of pool water such that the bottom drain must be visible at all times. If the pool becomes cloudy, and you are not able to see the bottom drain, this poses a great risk for a potential drowning accident. If a child is playing in their backyard or on strata grounds with their unsanitized, unmaintained pool and, God forbid that child falls in the pool, how are their family members going to know? How would they be able to see them to pull them to safety? Why should this be a possibility to even occur?
Secondly, although the public and strata pools, spas, hot tubs and fountains in Cayman are closed, their sanitary maintenance is mandatory in order to prevent the spread of other infectious diseases by mosquitoes, other pests & vermin and the diseases they may carry, which presents a risk not only to bathers but to the entire community at large. We will be facing the spread of diarrheal illnesses caused by Cryptosporidium, Giardia, Shigella, norovirus, and E. Coli; skin conditions such as Pseudomonas Dermatitis/Folliculitis; ear infections; and respiratory infections.
If we allow the thousands of pools on this island to go green, they will become a monstrous and magnificent network of science experiments and mosquito breeding grounds, and we could have a secondary health crisis on our hands that could easy overtake the risk that this coronavirus poses.
Some people might ask, “Why not just throw some bleach in there?” There are several factors that make this an ineffective measure for pool chemistry.
1. The strength of bleach is approximately 6-10% sodium hypochlorite. Proper pool chlorine is a minimum of 68% calcium hypochlorite and up to 99% trichloroisocyanruric acid. Bleach does not have the proper amount of free and available chlorine to provide proper sanitation and disinfection.
2. The pH of bleach, sodium hypochlorite, is about 13.0. This is a very basic or alkaline product. Proper pool pH level is to be 7.2-7.6. Bleach will cause the pH of pool water to raise significantly. When the pH of water reaches only 8.0, the strength of the chlorine is reduced to approximately 25%. Therefore, if you have the required minimum chlorine level of 2.0ppm, this will effectively be only a .5ppm level since it is
incapacitated by the high pH level. The strength & effectiveness will only go down as
more bleach is added.
3. Chlorine levels are only one aspect of the 9 different parameters that need to be
balanced in order to maintain the sanitation of a swimming pool. Those untrained in this delicate balance of all the parameters tend to only think of chlorine as that is all they are aware of and ignorant to the others.
4. If you do use bleach in the pool or hot tub, you WILL NOT be able to use it for recreational purposes. The bleach will not provide enough free and available chlorine to overcome the bather load and biological contaminants from actually using the body of water. Using bleach may only provide enough chlorine to hopefully delay the onset of an algal bloom until proper sanitizer is available for purchase.
5. Pools that have a salt water chlorine generator system installed cannot use bleach as a sanitizer. First, they don’t need to as the system creates its own chlorine. Second, the chlorine it generates is sodium hypochlorite, similar to bleach but in a higher concentration strength. These pool owners already know that muriatic acid needs to be added two to three times a week to keep the pH levels down in order to allow the chlorine to be able to sanitize the water. Without the proper acid to add to these pools, their pH will be above 8.0 within one week.
The next question someone will ask is, “Why don’t you just empty the pool?” This is both unwise and unsafe for several reasons.
1.
2.
3. 4. 5.
The water inside a swimming pool is engineered into the overall strength and support structure of the pool. The weight of the water (8.3lbs/ft3) actually helps hold the pool in the ground, particularly in areas with water table issues. Without the weight of the water holding the pool down, the pool shell can literally pop out of the ground. This is a catastrophic failure damaging the physical structure, breaking all the plumbing pipes and renders the pool destroyed. The costs to remedy this are astronomical. Pool plaster is a cementitious product that is engineered to be in a submerged setting. If the water is emptied from a pool, the plaster surface will start to craze, then crack, then begin falling off the cement substrate in chunks. This then requires a complete resurfacing of the pool shell. This will cost a minimum of $6000-8000 for a small pool, and only going up from there.
An empty pool is still a safety hazard as it will collect rain water. This rain water will be untreated by normal pool chemicals and filtration. As such, this will become a stagnant source of water for mosquitoes and other vermin.
An empty pool poses the safety risk of someone being able to fall in and suffering great bodily harm from the blunt force trauma of falling 3-8ft. onto a cement structure.
An empty hot tub will have several problems as well. If emptied, the many seals and gaskets can dry out and crack. When refilled, these gaskets will leak and necessitate replacement. When draining a hot tub, this will only remove water from the vessel; this does not empty the water from inside the plumbing lines. After a short period, this water will become stagnant, foul and form a biofilm which is very difficult to treat and remove. Additionally, in our tropical environment, an empty hot tub will create an “oven” effect. Within a few weeks, the heat from the sun will warp and distort many plastic parts necessitating replacement.
Finally, the
exercise to maintain physical, and therefore mental, health. With gyms and other public facilities
people who are confined at home and have pools can use them as a vital means of
closed during our shelter in place orders, the backyard pool, spa or hot tub provides the ideal way for families to focus on their health and well-being. These pools and hot tubs must be properly maintained to ensure proper sanitation measures are taking place. By using the pools and spas at their home, our people are achieving the goal of staying at home, staying off the roads, and not running the risk of contracting the virus, which is paramount to trying to contain the spread of the coronavirus and flatten the curve.
When a pool technician performs weekly maintenance, they typically work in isolation and do not encounter customers. Prior to shut down, pool supply stores were having customers and technicians collect their goods outside and practicing social distancing in the event the technician needed to go in the store for any purpose.
The Pool & Hot Tub Alliance (PHTA) firmly believes the companies that supply pool sanitization and disinfection materials such as pool retail stores, the companies that manage the maintenance of swimming pools, hot tubs and other artificial bodies of water are essential to preventing the transmission of infectious diseases, helping maintain community health, and ensuring public safety. Maintaining the cleanliness and sanitization of recreational water is very essential in general, but even more so, specifically, here in the Caribbean.
To belittle or undermine this important matter of proper pool, spa & hot tub maintenance, sanitation and disinfection is counterproductive to maintaining the health and sanity of our people during these unprecedented and very difficult times.
Didn’t read. Shut up.
It’s better for a fool to say nothing and for people to wonder about how smart they are than to open their mouth and remove all doubt.
Try understanding this.
A green pool is a health hazard not only for the homeowner but for the whole island.
Mosquito borne diseases have killed more people than all wars added together.
Then drain the pool. Problem solved.
And the money you saved watering your plants you can use when its time to refill the pool.
Try reading first.
What part of ‘we don’t care about your g’damned pool’ don’t you understand?
The part where you get zika
I would hope that pool owners would be held responsible for this. Drain it.
LOL
I did. They said “A green pool is a health hazard not only for the homeowner but for the whole island.” How do you plan to reinterpret that into something that draining the pool does not solve?
Your prose is boring and convoluted. Please take a online writing course and try again – preferably in another forum that concentrates on whinging about pools.
Try this:
A green pool is a breeding ground for millions of mosquitoes.
Mosquito borne diseases have killed more people than every war combined.
Then take responsibility and drain the damn thing before you kill more people than every war combined. You don’t want to be remembered like hitler, do you?
Try reading.
Copy and paste the appropriate section for me,,,,
Try acting like a responsible human being rather than a spoiled elitist!
I think you have made some very valid points and I believe that in time the government will relax on some things like professional pool maintenance but for now he is taking the right tact. Stubborn is in the mother’s milk and so it takes a little while to get people on board. He knows his culture and he is wise. People can live without a pool guy for a few weeks or even a month or so.
We are trading one crisis for the next. Brilliant.
Your crisis of have to pay for your pool? Sorry bubba, drain it.
Try reading bubba.
Try this. The pool is your responsibility. If it needs to be demolished for the health reasons you are so worried about, then so be it. Take responsibility for your choices in life.
Read this.
No one seems to care that the continued shut down of world wide commerce is forecast to push at least 500,000 000 men, woman, and children into absolute poverty. Insufficient food, clean water, health care, education will push desperate people to do desperate things.
No. No one seems to care about people crying about their pool with 500,000,000 people being pushed into poverty. I would dare say that some people blame ‘pool babies’ for other people’s misery.
What are you doing? Writing a book? By the time I got through reading your comment I was so tired I couldn’t read the others. I’m just saying….
Well, reading isn’t for the uneducated.
If there are more than 3 words in a sentence, THIS INDIVIDUAL, and I believe there is ONE spiteful being behind all the nasty comments, he is unable to comprehend what is written.
You haven’t got the memo,
They don’t give a shit about your finances, whether you go bankrupt, whether you lose your business, or your land, whether your employees loses their jobs or whether your family can eat or not eat.
They have 150.00 for you in the event all of the above happens.
What they care about is getting their way, regardless of the data, or whatever the costs.
It’s a bit difficult for a civil servant or an MLA to empathize with the lose of income that goes with a lock down because- guess what – THEIR income doesn’t change.
Insane. I’m staying home and not leaving and still being punished as now my daily swim is gone as my pool is slowly turning into a mosquito breeding ground. At least let chemicals be dropped off!!! Why can’t that happen?
Arrogance and an unwillingness to accept when one is wrong.
Because a pool is a luxury and not essential?
Tell that to those that swim to ease mental health issues.
How is juice or coffee deliveries considered essential? These delivery people have direct contact with food and beverages and can more easily spread the virus. I recently also saw on Facebook an advert for a company who provides personalized services KWP – they too were given essential worker status. How is that essential? Clearly it’s all done on “who you know” basis ….
You mean like the take out coffees we see in the desks at the press conference? How about the mobile car wash operating at Regatta to clean police cars? Or the fact that if you or I go on the road after 7 we get nailed by the police but Burger King and Dominos can still deliver until 9. Or for that matter we can only go to the supermarket 3 days a week to buy our food but we can get fast food delivered 6 days.
Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool! Oh my god, my pool…
Your pool was an environmental disaster from before the day the excavator shoes up.
Great use of copy and paste, terrible use of brain power.
Needed copy and paste to paraphrase the entitled idiots posting her. Good detective work tho bro.
Does Alden have a mid-term or long-term plan? Why hasn’t he outlined what he plans to do a year from now?
Cayman cannot stay locked down until the world is free of this virus. If social distancing can be practiced at the grocery store check out and at the Pharmacy the money transfer service should be allowed.
The beach is a safe place to be with plenty of sun and a breeze. Instead Alden enacts an ill conceived beach and coastal curfew. Where is a long term plan to gradually reopen Cayman? Instead the policy is to double down on what exists. Meanwhile a police helicopter is chasing a dirt bike rider around the island while more and more police join the manhunt. I dislike these feral dirt bikes like everyone else but why not keep the beaches open and implement a plan to handle beach crowds?
he has no plan. his plan for tourism..?…shut up shop and tell your employees to leave the island…..zzzzzzzzz
Well what would you do in his shoes? Tell everyone to stay and starve here? Hand out ridiculous subsidiaries to those who are out of work for an extended period?
I feel bad for the caymanians who have no choice but to remain here, out of work and with little hope. At least those on permits have the opportunity to leave and find work else where.
You are insane. Do you understand that? Of course you don’t.
Sure. I’m insane to think hospital beds will be needed for covid and not mosquito borne illness. Who am I to care?
Shut up about the mosquitoes. If pools are a detriment during a pandemic, take responsibility and do something about it and stop threatening people with mosquitoes growing in YOUR plaything. Let’s review: take responsibility for your toys.
Now be a good boy and make me happy.
Your jealously isn’t my problem.
It could be
Please people, in general the USA’s response is NO example to follow. Our Government would do well to follow Taiwan’s, Hong Kong’s and Singapore’s examples.
As a case study in effective isolation follow what Guam has done with asymptomatic sailors from the USS Roosevelt – locked them in hotel rooms with no keys to re-enter if they dare to come out.
Students returning to Cayman were quarantined in total lock-down, so why can’t positive cases be locked-down likewise instead of relying on “self-isolation”, which some people are clearly not respecting?
Now that we have adequate kits to test the entire population, mass testing needs to start asap!!
Because you don’t lock down just the positive individual, you need to quarantine the household (at least) and the households of their previous close contacts. Given the variety of lives that covers its much harder than students who we can assume are generally healthy and able to live by themself in a dorm, I mean hotel, room. Imagine trying to do that for a kids-parents-grandparents, etc., household? Therefore home quarantine is the right approach. The problem now being encountered seems to be an inability to enforce said quarantine.
Did they not discuss how to safely handle the mail during a global pandemic at the Postal Conference in Timbuctu? Maybe Ju Ju could give them some advice?
Construction Essential don’t make me laugh! What an idiot ! Close that shit down destroying our damn environment, you even less important than my pool guy right now.
Have you ever thought why evolution created viruses?
Have you ever asked yourself where do new genes come from?
Have you heard about “ orphan genes” discovery?
May be viruses are the “raw material» of life?
Why humans were built to be so easily afflicted by viruses? Why would nature do that?
Why are humans still unable to quickly stop pandemics?
Why nature needs them? The viruses.
Nature doesn’t use her resources unwisely .
What is the origin of genes?
Are we fighting the war we will never win? Simply Because we don’t understand our enemy and never will?
May be strong conviction in science should be loosely held? Because nature would always create doubts in scientific paradigms?
May be “Expert“ knowledge is limited knowledge because it is devoid of everyday wisdom?
Soon people are going to wake up to a stark reality. Having no job and income to buy food is as deadly as C19. How loosing 200k (worldwide) to C19 compares to loosing 1% of the world’s population who are not C19 targets biologically?
I thought it was God who created viruses?
Exactly, only now that it’s convenient, they want to blame poor old evolution.
Too long, did not read. Was it another person worried about their pool?
It was written for intellectually curious minds. Simple question everyone should be asking.
“May be “Expert“ knowledge is limited knowledge because it is devoid of everyday wisdom?”
I’m sorry, but if your intellectually curious mind finds value in such statements, then I don’t think you have a good understanding of the word “intellectual.” That statement is basically questioning trained scientists because they don’t have “everyday wisdom,” so instead we should act on gut feelings, superstition and old wives’ tales. That’s pretty much the opposite of “intellectual.”
Donnie big brain trump uses his gut.
The proper word usage is losing.
There are a lot of comments on this page but people thinking that they know what is best for this country my strong opinion is that we already have a leader of this country might not have been my choice but I must agree with the work and the effort that he is doing to save the people of this country if you have a problem with how he is doing things and you are not of this country I suggest you call the helpline to see if you can go back to your country this man the premier is doing everything he can to save the people of this country and more going above and beyond to do what he can to make sure people can survive here while we fight this invisible monster so please if you don’t got nothing good to say a nothing supporting please don’t say anything at all some of these comments are getting me very upset and it’s all about when are we going to get business back it’s all about money for some people you don’t care about the lives of other people and health and safety just as long as you can make money that is what it seems like to me so if you think you can’t survive here call the help line and get your business on you off this rock cuz this man is doing what he can to save this country and the people in it and if you don’t like how he does things I suggest you move on and move forward
Correct I second demotion…
Congratulations on writing the longest sentence without any punctuation whatsoever. Doesn’t your cellphone have commas and periods.
Yeah but people don’t use them, or know how to by the looks of it. I usually don’t read those types of comments. Just someone babbling on and on.
I am blown away by your comment. Not one use of punctuation at all.
A symptom of the ‘rona.
Can anyone explain to me how come I can not have my smartphone fixed (how is this not essential??) While Office Supply just got an exepmtion??!?!
How is office supply en essential business??
No garages
No DHL
No computer stores
No phone repair
How the hell did an office supply store get en exemption in this epidemic??????
Who is making these decisions????
Many people are required to work from home. What is to happen when they want ink for printers? The 2 printers in our office need toner. How are we to continue to operate without office supplies? Stop your emotional responses and think. Many places are operating in order for us to get basic needs. We need office supplies. Duh.
while I agree your phone repair should be essential. Office supply is supplying product to keep those of us who have to educate our children and work from home able to do so. THINK before you type. PLEASE, I beg of all you.
As usual in Cayman, all you need to do is ask who the owner is.
Buy a new one.
From what store?
All these people bitching about the inconvenience imposed by the government in an attempt to try and save lives. You think it’s bad now. Make this get really worse and one day you wake up to armed UK soldiers walking down the street enforcing martial law and you will plead with Alden to go back to soft curfews.
Despite what you think with the current imposed conditions, things are not bad yet. Wait till martial law comes into effect (God forbid it does) and morons on motorcycles are shot instead of being roughly tackled. Who you going to blame then? Nobody but yourselves because you all could not F**KING LISTEN AND STAY YOUR ASSES HOME!
seems pretty Marshall lawy to me out there.
Who is this Marshall to whom you refer? Marshal Dillon perhaps?
Coming from a person I’m pretty sure has never experienced it, a movie can only take you so far
Meanwhile BA seems to have quietly dropped the LHR-NAS-GCM route from next year…
That’s because our airport will still be closed and I will be stuck here with a bunch of people who whine about their swimming pool all day.
Excellent job Premier and Governor ,
The supermarkets should also viewed as very risky.
Funny how so many people poked fun at the post office now it is an essential service who according to posters have received international mail despite the absence of international flights.
Please do not ask us to follow any other country lead in fighting this pandemic. Cayman not for the first time is the role model for the World.
Where do you think the freight is coming from?
There is almost a daily international flight here and many around the world.
Thats what fright companies do and they use their airplanes.
Sure mail can travel on them right?
Don’t also claim to be a role model yet. We maybe doing good but there have been some other countries do even better and its not over yet.
There are flights coming in every day. Where they coming from Little?
After listening to today’s briefing it’s clear they are not content with suppression and flattening the curve, they want to eradicate the virus from Cayman, whatever the social and personal cost. The Premier’s fairly detailed references to a 21 day hard curfew show they have given some considerable thought to this option but it would be a very grave mistake. The cost to the community to do this would be immense both economically and to the mental health of everyone and what would we get at the end, a world where the virus was still very much active. Are they suggesting that Cayman will isolate itself from the world for at least the next 18 month to 2 years? I understand their dilemma but there is growing evidence that the total human cost is similar to a flu season. (I am not suggesting this is the flu, simply that that we are not behaving rationally but emotionally. Ultimately it is not the governments job to save everyone, whatever the cost.) The US recently revised the # of deaths from Covid 19 down to about 60,000 which is very similar to the estimates of the flu in 2017-2018, but we didn’t stop the economy for that or any other flu season in recent times. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm
There needs to be a different option on the table. 1. Protect the vulnerable by figuring out who is over 70 or has a medical condition which puts them at risk and putting the right resources into isolating them. 2. Anyone who wants to stay isolated can stay isolated. 3. Begin to open up various support services in Cayman and test those staff. Do this incrementally and slowly enough to ensure the health services are not swamped. 5. Retain social distancing and train all businesses requirements that their staff must follow with each other and customers. 6. If there is a flare up, test quickly and widely and isolate anyone who was potentially infected. 7. Bring back tougher restrictions if needed but only for limited periods to damp down but not eradicate the virus.
The idea of eradication is so alluring but ultimately futile. Govt. should use its resources widely into preparing everyone for the inevitable, a life with this virus (or its later variants) for the long term, rather than continuing this fallacy that eradication is either possible or a viable approach.
Stamping it out is the only viable option in the Cayman context. Get on board or get out of the way.
Then you can never open the airport again because someone coming in will have it.
You need to get out of the way
So sorry that your profits are effected. Those of us with generations of family in Cayman have much more to lose. We are not willing to make that sacrifice.
You have to relocate to the Moon than. It took decades plus vaccinations to suppress the “bad 3”- polio, smallpox and diphtheria. Tuberculosis is being controlled, but not conquered. World has learned to live with it. Nature has unknown to us evolutionary reasons for existence of deadly viruses and bacteria that can lay in wait for years to claim its next victim. Not a single disease has been ever eradicated, only managed.
I totally agree with 7:14. ‘All or nothing’ strategy will backfire big way.
The potential death toll from putting lives on hold could be devastating. Suspending all non-urgent surgeries to focus on coronavirus cases only means more cancer and heart disease patients will die.
Unless they happen to catch the virus en route to the hospital. Then we chalk the death up to Covid-19.
It not going any place and you can’t stop it out of the planet so what are you going to do? Keep the country shut for years?
Honestly I think the reason behind covid-19 was to get people to stay home. Just look at the positive affect it has on the environment. I think we were is a real crisis in regards to climate change and covid-19 was the only solution that people would abide by. even if I’m wrong, you cant deny how we were living was unsustainable for the environment. This change hard as it may be so for the better. The restrictions may ease up in the future but things will never and should never be the same again. It’s time to rethink our economy and become skilled in essential work!
And there you have it…Yay covid!!! SMFH
Nature has its own way to restore balance.
you missed the point….SMFH
Well put. CIG’s families are pressuring the ministers to stomp it out as it will kill the grandparents. Every expat is expendable.
FFS the elderly or NOT the only ones that can die from this!
MY GOD, how is anyone so ignorant during this time??? With all the time you must have on your hands right now how are you not educated about this???OMG
I bet you are one of the people who told the Premier that it’s ok to let the Elders and vulnerable die just so you can open your business and be greedy.And contrary to your moronic belief, IT IS the job of the Government try and save everyone. Only if the situation is so dire that sacrifices must be made with that happen but just because you’re business is closed means my mother and father who are considered vulnerable should die. You are greedy asshole.
@ 10.27 – Go back and look at point 1 of what needs to happen next in my post. “protect the vulnerable”. It doesn’t say save the vulnerable simply because you are dealing with a natural phenomena which none of us can control completely. The only way to try and save every single person in Cayman is to have a hard curfew for the next 2 years until a vaccine is introduced. The social and economic cost to that would be catastrophic and ultimately far worse than coming up with an alternate plan where you protect the vulnerable and figure out how to get back to some kind of business as usual, as fast as practically possible. This isn’t black and white like the Premier is trying to make out. A lot of countries are showing that you can keep businesses and services open during these periods if you have the right approach.
You do know they are going to die anyway, right?
You are very brave.
Agreed on most points. Prolonged isolation maybe utopian, but the economic, psychological costs will be high even if loss of human life is low. But a point to be noted, except the dreaded Spanish flu of the 1900s, no “seasonal flu” turned hospitals into morgues at such alarming speed. The virus is supposedly even more transmissable than the flu. And while the scientists still try to learn, perhaps it would be good to let out the people gradually, with mandatory face masks. The virus spreads even with the spittle of talking, let alone cough.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds….oh forget it, Caymankind.
Unfortunately, we live amongst skeptics and anarchists who seem eager to go out and infect themselves and others just to prove how mentally-undeveloped they are. Perhaps the HSA should grant them their wish, inject them with the live virus, quarantine them, and transfer them to Northward upon negative testing. Anyone in this category that isn’t Caymanian needs to have their permits/PR cancelled and sent on next BA flight out of here.
Yes, god forbid someone should disagree with your hysterical group-think, they should locked up or executed.
Do you have a picture of Stalin or Hitler on your wall by chance?
No, he/she has one picture of Kim Ill Sum and one of Fidel Castro.
Oh, go watch another conspiracy theory video on YouTube.
This is precisely why Americans enshrined the 2nd amendment into their constitution, not for hunting purposes. We’ve been told that fascism can never emerge in western democracy yet look at the comment above and the twenty odd up votes so far.
I’m sure there’s some Nigerian princes out there who’d be willing to help out.
My tags are now expired. Will Alden forgive my ticket? I hope so. Because we have no options to abide by the ‘old laws’ under this new Marshall law bull
Never never never had this been enforced. Never.
First off, I have been impressed by Alden sticking with his guns and trying to keep us safe. Part of this is giving access to pensions, which I think is absolutely crucial if people are going to survive, (unless the government wants to pony up a stimulus package like u.s. and canada but I don’t see that happening) – so access to pensions would be a win-win.
But..I am disappointed about this statement “They will also amend the traffic law to allow for vehicles to be licensed even without a certificate of inspection.” This seems dangerous. The goal around everything your doing is to prevent lives from being lost and this does the exact opposite.
The UK has put MOT”s (vehicle inspections) on hold for 12 months.
FFS what should happen? Open the DVDL who gives a crap about cars? Those that are willing to find a way have ways to get their car licensed without going through the proper channels or have you never noticed all the crap cars on the road that are burning blue with updated stickers on the windshield.
All that can be sorted out later. FFS let them amend the law so that ppl can get their cars sorted and the gov can collect a bit of $$.
If our government cannot even stop KNOWN Covid patients from breaking quarantine, why should anyone bother? I have wasted my time being responsible. And I am done being responsible. Every man for himself. Clearly our Government doesn’t care.
Set an example. Show people how it’s done right. Please do not give up.
Another moronic troll has reared their head. You’re the type of person who will complain the government didn’t do enough when you go out and get your family infected.
Those who disagree with you don’t seem to understand that when known Covid patients breaks quarantine and goes to the supermarket and transmits the virus to the genuinely brave people who work there, and they in turn, unknowingly give it to those who thumb down this post, that what the government is not doing makes the whole exercise of lockdown pointless.
Wow, I have children that are 11 with more will power and a sense of responsibility than you, get a grip or leave, your choice, rafts can always be made.
At some point we are going to have to open up businesses. I do not think anyone can deny that. It is just about when. If this virus will be a 2 year event, should we continue this Bullshit half assed curfew for 24 months? I say no.
Florida:
United States post office and private carriers work like a clock. Hardware stores are open. utilities companies are working. Lawn maintenance guys haven’t skipped a day.
There seems to be a clear consensus (elsewhere but Cayman) on what services are critical for a functional society, and such life-sustaining businesses can stay open. They include, but are not limited to:
Supermarkets and grocers
Farms and food manufacturers
Restaurants for takeout and delivery only
Hospitals
Healthcare providers including physicians, dentists, and veterinary clinics
Pharmacies
Banks
Post offices
Law enforcement
Gas stations
Automotive repair shops
Convenience stores
Laundromats
Transportation hubs including airports, maritime ports, train stations, and bus stations
Power plants
Shelters
Hardware stores: Most states are allowing stores like Ace Hardware and Lowe’s to stay open, as they help maintain the homes.
Office supply stores: Most states are allowing stores like Office Depot and Staples to stay open, as they facilitate the transition to working from home.
The US is not an example we should follow. Our government is doing the right thing.
Time will tell.
Must be written by a goverment employee or a person who has a unlimited source of income. Say you doomsday people have your way and lock everyone away for 21 days but then the virus is still there, what do you do then, lock us all away for another 21 days? There is a better way but the problem is the leaders are not going to do anything differently as they have the money and the power.
REALLY? Do share
Would this be the same country that has had the most COVID19 cases and deaths worldwide? USA #1
Do the words “per capita” mean anything to you?
you might need to expand on the explanation of per capita……chalkboard might be required too.
Even on a per capita basis, the US has more cases/deaths than almost all of the world’s countries outside of Western Europe. The US, on a federal level, has NOT done a good job with this and if that’s what you think, you should really stop watching Fox News. There are some governors from both political parties who have handled this well however, but there have been debacles, like in Florida.
US
Population of the U.S. 328,000,000
Total cases: 613,000
Total deaths: 26,016
Combined population of: UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany 324,000,000
Total cases: 705,000 nearly 20% higher infection rate than U.S. per cap
Total deaths: 70,650 nearly 300% higher death rate per capita than U.S.
Which proves what exactly? That one country prepared better than another? How do you explain Japan? They never locked down and are still riding the buses and subways in their uber crowed cities. You don’t know jack squat and it appears the experts aren’t much ahead of you.
Florida is a terrible example to follow. The handling of the crisis there has been filled with confusion, misinformation, and terrible leadership by the Governor. The number of new cases and deaths continue to rise and their efforts to assist those who lost their jobs is equally as terrible. We should all be thankful we aren’t following the Florida playbook.
Suggest follow the example of New York State, New Jersey, Washington and California. Better still is the example of British Columbia, where they took action very fast and completely flattened the curve unlike other parts of Canada.
The Governor of Florida is a very confused and his views seem to change every few days on what should be done. Somewhat like his mentor the “stable genius”.
Follow the example of NY. Are you f*ing serious. You want us to follow the state with the worst infection and death rates!
The mayor of NY City told everyone in late February to continue us to ride the subway, everything was okay. The same time the chief medical officer of the state told everyone to go out and enjoy the public events and gatherings, especially the China town celebrations.
Next thing you will probably be praising China!
And they have total control over the virus and virtually no deaths so it is working, right??
Florida has a population of 21,400,000. They have 499 deaths. We have a population of 67,000 and 1 death. What’s the difference? I will save you the time, we should have had half a person more die.
And that death was of someone who was not part of our population.
out of 21,400,000 at least 1% must die per year (life expectancy is less than 100. That means an average of 586 people die EVERY DAY in Florida….Puts that 499 in perspective – not really that much.- it’s all about how the numbers are presented.
Florida also has 123,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 500 deaths. I’m not sure they’re the best example to put forth.
Florida has 20,601 cases as of today. You’re overstating by approximately 102,599.
123,000?
Fake News!
There are 20,601 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Florida. NOT 123K
21 thousand + cases. get you facts right.
Change that to per capita and see how it works out
I am sure the moment you hit the enter button, you thought, shit, this is a mistake.
5.15pm and pool maintenance.
Also construction is deemed essential.
Want the US death rate as well?
You say Florida and the US is still functioning post offices lawn maintenance so on and so forth but look at the mess that they are in they cannot control anything on people are dropping like flies please use your common sense that if you have any I respect the premier 100% and his decisions to save the people of this country
No plan. Do some reading Alden. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30095-X/fulltext
4:18pm
Great idea old friend. We need more like you.
Hopefully, these 27 will re-enter the rental pool and help drive the exorbitant rents down by at least 40%.
Why not, if you can, do it!
Sure, your article addressed school closings only. Not closings as part of a larger shutdown strategy. Next…
alden stopped talking sense a long time ago….his idiotic stance on pool maintenance proved that.
You would be the ideal person to give someone the virus. Some people you just can’t give away common sense to. Our Premier have made excellent decisions for this country. You worried about a pool!!!!!!
Pools being left can cause other major issues, cholera and typhoid to name a few. Then the subsequent increase in mosquitoes increases Zika and other risks, which we could do without given the current crisis at hand. At least let us have the chemicals available for purchase.
6:56 Keep your pool pump running and if you have chlorine use it. Mosquitoes only breed in stagnant, unchlorinated water. If your pool pump is running this is impossible. You may get a bit of algae but do you seriously think we will get cholera or typhoid!? There is no evidence that this will happen. You lack common sense. After Ivan in 2004 with no power pools were left filthy for months and no one died of mosquito or water borne illness. Pools are not essential they are a LUXURY. Stop the hysteria. Your arguments are not based on fact. We all have to sacrifice some comforts in these times. Stop bothering government with these silly self-centred requests. It wastes time and you will get nowhere with this.
The pool guy misses his girlfriend. You need to understand that and his wife will not let him out.
Please explain how opening post offices , at least for sorting, distribution and collection from our boxes, is risky? I have never seen more than a few people at a time in branches outside of George Town. What about those who receive pension checks by mail. You are crippling them! Stop ridiculing people who don’t do everything online.
It’s risky for the employees
Get some new ones then from the ranks of the unemployed. Problem is old Alden is paying all the goverment workers while the rest of us just have to suck it up.
Those that work in grocery stores, gas stations, hospitals, keep electricity and water running, police, and restaurants, etc. are taking the same risks. Should they stay home and the government pay them?
Mail is not essential in 2020 – that’s why we have email. As for packages, there are other ways of getting them!
The Civil Servants are willing to come in. But the decision was that the line-up inside wasn’t worth the risk … to the customers. (There’s a nice plexiglass spray-screen between teller and customer, remember.) The point is that unless its an absolutely necessary service, that can be done with limited human contact, keep it closed down.
The irony of course is it’s the elderly who tend not to do things online. We will save them from the virus, but what about undue stress?
The elderly are out and about all over the place. They don’t give a shit and have no desire to spend their last days under an oppressive regime they didn’t ask for.
So who is Alden protecting then?
Voters. Protecting and paying them. What else can he do? That is his only job. Everyone else has no representation. You didn’t know that?
Nobody. He just thinks he is.
The staff wont go to work as they are scared, just like Cayman Airways staff.
its not a risk… its just the civil service taking the usual easy lazy option
Fomites. All mail is capable of transferring the virus.
That risk is very low!
Solution: The mail arrives bagged. Transport it to a special sorting area (any number of the vacant school / community halls) and disinfect it while holding for 72 hours. Proceed to PO’s as usual.
And then the possibly infected mail worker puts envelopes in everyone’s PO Boxes. What a brilliant distribution method you have come up with!
So is all groceries. All credit cards, all gas station nozzles, etc.
Please transition into the 21st century and get your bills sent by email and send your corresponse via email. The post office is an out dated system.
That’s my question / thought also? The answers so far aren’t making sense!
The pool you need to be concerned with is your gene pool which with the apparent disregard for rules and sensible approaches to controlling the virus would be better suited for the cheetoh up north to dip into…
Alden has never been one to be able to admit his mistakes
ignorance and arrogance…..cornerstones of caymanian culture
Saw Jon Jon on today’s press briefings what a sad case he is- he was reading from sheets of paper like kids do in kindergarten class 4 years old when they are starting to read
Jon Jon you are a sad case- step down and stop embarrassing the Caymanian people
“You are in over your head”
Just stop it ! You are a bully! Must be ashamed of yourself.
4:41 pm You are embarrassing Cayman. Spiteful coward.
He did invent one or two new words today.
You should be ashamed of yourself. He is doing the very best given the circumstances. Why don’t you do his job since you know a thing or too. Disgraceful how your very own cannot support each other. Really crabs in a bucket mentality.
Meanwhile, back in the 19th century, Cayman still pays its employees by cheque.
The banks charge too much to do it electronically & Fidelity does not have an online system that allows dual authorisation so cheques are written to our staff of 4.
$2 is too much. Figure out what each cheque cost you to buy. Then add the fee for processing. Then add in a cost for your time writing and then reconciling.
We need dual authorisation (Auditor requirement to prevent fraud) but Fidelity online system can’t do it (& no other bank wanted our account – no profit in micro business).
I was talking about the cost to set up auto payroll, not local transfer.
Some people receive cheques by registered mail from overseas too. This represents funds being kept from entering the local economy, and more importantly from recipients who depend on those funds.
Nothing to see here folks!
https://www.zdnet.com/article/nyu-scientists-largest-u-s-study-of-covid-19-finds-obesity-the-single-biggest-factor-in-new-york-critical-cases/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/worst-is-over-cuomo-says-as-6-states-ally-to-reopen-economy-live-updates/ar-BB12yyxi
(How can this be???? Where are the 2.2 MILLION dead and why are the hospitals empty?)
CNS: Sigh. Again. That 2.2 million prediction was in an academic paper published by the Imperial College in London (see here). It predicted what could happen if no containment measures were taken. However, measures have been taken, which is why the figure has changed. The modelling will continue to be updated up or down depending on new data, including increased containment measures (down) or Trump opening up the country (up), which is how these things work.
The empty hospitals BS is the most depraved of the current round of conspiracy theories, James O’Keefe is a nut.
Sigh… OF COURSE you an people like you saved us all from the 2.2 million deaths.
“If it wasn’t for us!” Who knew that was coming….
CNS: No. For crying out loud, get a flipping grip. It was because of epidemiologists and an army of academics who have made a lifetime of studying this type of thing, and the politicians who listened to them, including – after a long time of trying not to – Trump, and for the healthcare workers, doctors and nurses who have been working long, hard hours to treat the sick, the EMT’s and all the other front-line workers. It happened despite idiot conspiracy theorists spreading dangerous lies and nonsense on the internet.
Peoples families in foreign countries rely on remittances Cayman residents….by stopping this you could be jeopardizing the health of these beneficiaries. Limit access the same as you do with banks but you need to be rational in your restrictions.
No money allowed off the island till all debts are settled and flights are purchased by the ones leaving.
The rudderless oppression of the people continues.
Don’t you have 27 tenants to evict?
I’m evicting my 27 tenants now in arrears first thing Sunday morning.
Irregardless of what the goverment says, the property owner is ultimately responsible for the cost of operating these rental properties and if no one is paying rent how are we to pay our bills? I do not see any of the goverment people coming up with money nor are they cutting there own pay but they can call a property owner mean and uncaring because they have bills to pay also.
Regardless. No such word as irregardless. Didn’t even read your post, too distracted by the grating grammar.
All civil service is still getting paid.
7:24 I think you mean servants*. Why shouldn’t they get paid if they still have work to do? Im a civil servant and I have plenty of work to get on with thanks. Don’t put us all in one box.
Can I assume you have a Trade and Business license, and are treating everyone fairly?
You are aware what happens when an economy is shut down? Up to last week the T&B board wasn’t meeting. And even if was meeting, without jobs, people can’t pay rent.
No Trade and Business License on 27+ units? You are a money launderer. The government can confiscate your units and no one need be evicted. Problem solved.
Good luck with that.
So because the government isn’t doing it’s job, I’m a money launderer? I hope your not in compliance, we all be screwed.
No, you could have attempted to renew your T&B. My guess is you never had one in the first place.
Alternatively, you can put your money where your mouth is. Post your address and have these people stay with you.
My licensed rental properties are occupied, but thanks for offering future tenants.
No need for a TBL if you only have two rental apartments
27 tenants in 2 units? Let’s hope not. That is the very definition of a public health risk.
You’ve never been to Filipino karaoke, have you?
Still a public health risk, and illegal.