10 new COVID cases include 6 front-line staff

| 21/05/2020 | 216 Comments
Cayman News Service
Foster’s Airport

(CNS) UPDATED: Four workers at Kirk Home Centre have tested positive for COVID-19, as well as one at Foster’s Airport location and one person who works for mobile food vendors, Al La Kebab. These were among the ten new cases reported by health authorities on Thursday out of a batch of 383 results over the last 24 hours. The six front-line workers from Kirk’s, Foster’s and Al La Kebab are all asymptomatic, the companies have reported.

Health authorities have said that all of the additional 28 tests taken at HMP Northward yesterday were negative.

According to Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee, the new results were all detected through the screening programme, and the ten positives are likely to be community acquired cases. They are all now in isolation and contact tracing in each case has already begun. None of these cases appears to be linked with each other, he noted. 

Laura Silverman, one of the owners of Al La Kebab, said all their staff members have been tested. As well as the one person who was positive, all other staff members with whom they were recently in close contact have also been quarantined.

Cayman News Service
Al La Kebab truck

Both of the Al La Kebab locations, at Marquee Plaza and the Red Bay truck, are open as usual, having been sanitized first thing this morning. As well as regular extensive cleaning, they have conducted additional stringent sanitation and deep-cleaning procedures, Silverman said. The West Bay location was closed in early April.

“We remain in close contact with the Heath Service Authority and are following all of their recommended guidelines,” Silverman said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “We continue to require all of our team members to follow stringent safety protocols. This includes our staff being provided, and being required to use, personal protective equipment. As a result of these and the other measures we are taking, we are confident that we will be able to continue to serve the Cayman community safely.”

Kirk Home Centre GM Brigitte C. Shaughness, said the company will be doing everything possible to assist their positive members of staff during their isolation period.

She said that all members of staff have been required to wear company issued PPE since the store was approved to re-open on 4 May. As well as daily sanitation protocols, a third party janitorial service provides additional cleaning and sanitation every evening.

“This evening our janitorial provider will perform an even more thorough sanitation and disinfection service. Therefore, we will be open to the public on Friday morning. We thank our customers for their support as we all learn to manage this public health crisis and we will continually review our sanitation procedures to ensure the safest possible working and shopping environment,” Shaughness said.

Foster’s, which reported Monday night that two workers from the branch in West Bay, Foster’s Republix, were positive for the disease, said that over 720 of their staff have so far been tested for COVID-19.

A spokesperson for supermarket said that the Airport store “will perform disinfection-level cleaning once the store closes this evening at 7pm”. A third-party janitorial service has been scheduled to come into Foster’s Airport while the store is closed to carry out additional sanitation measures using electrostatic sanitation systems throughout the store.

Anyone who worked closely with the covid-positive staff member in the last three days has “been guided according to contact tracing guidelines set forth by the Cayman Islands Government”, Foster’s said.

“Unfortunately, dealing with positive cases of COVID-19 is the new normal, globally. We’ve worked with the other supermarkets on island to align our protocols to ensure all are responding to positive cases quickly and effectively with safety as our top priority,” said Julian Foster, Marketing Senior Manager.

In accordance with company policy, the affected employees will be taken care of during the quarantine period and upon their return to work, Foster’s said.

Health authorities said the HSA’s polymerase chain reaction (PCR) laboratory is going through a scheduled maintenance day and so will only be reporting clinically urgent specimens.


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Category: Business, Food and Drink, Health, Medical Health, Retail

Comments (216)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Can someone tell me why I see American and Cayman Air, flying in when they no more flights to come in, why is people who have private jets are allowed to fly in just because they own property in Cayman. This is what’s causing such a long lockdown and Aldin will just keep adding 2 more weeks. If they had stop all fights from March 22, 2020 we would not have so many positive cases and such a long lockdown and lost of business. It just prove that our Government just cant say NO to allow people to fly in just because they have their own private jets.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    I think you’re mistaken; everyone does not get the flu. What everyone gets is the common cold. I’ve had flu once in my life – and I knew I had it; couldn’t even get out of bed. Trust me – even a really bad cold is nothing like as bad as flu. I do agree that everyone says they have flu – but they really don’t.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Let’s think like a logical person.

    Not a politician

    “Our plan is to flatten the curve so that health services will not be overwhelmed.”

    No one has presented with any illness in 4 weeks. So achieved.

    Oh now our new plan is eradication.

    Oops, eradication is not possible.

    Our new plan is sticking with a model we know is flawed. And screwing small businesses because we cannot admit we f-d up.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    if No one has become in in 4 weeks, really…

  5. Anonymous says:

    It really doesn’t matter how many people have Coronavirus, as no one has the disease caused by it. No one is ill. We are just locked down for nothing.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    History will show that the poor decisions made now only serve to exasperate the poor decisions made earlier. We are so wrong on so many fronts. I would have hoped our government would have been reasonable. That is not the case.

    If we ban cars there will be no car crashes, this is the logic from our premier .it is a fools logic.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    I am so sick of our entitled government destroying my ability to earn a living. They need to make logical, scientific decisions. Wtf, no one is ill. No one is dying from this virus, not one person has had so much as a chafe on their diabetic thigh, absolutely f-ing no one!

    They talk about helping small businesses yet do nothing. I guess they count on the poor education system to propagate their lies to uneducated masses.

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  8. Apoco Lips says:

    Good thing they have that emergency field hospital up and running!

  9. Anonymous says:

    2.59pm Anybody received any masks around Walkers Road/Smith Road, no MLAs, no community police, none given outside supermarket as of today! Ho hum….

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  10. Anonymous says:

    So in 4 weeks no one has had any symptoms. No one is hemorrhaging from their eyes, or even has the dang sniffles. But, in abundance of caution we are going to ruin all small businesses. Great plan.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    CNS would you mind asking the panel where all the masks are that were bought by the private sector (inc. Dart) that are supposedly being distributed door to door by the police? When will they be doing BT?

    CNS: We just got a release about that. We’ll be posting soon.

    • Anonymous says:

      Thank you. They weren’t at Fosters countryside today. Perhaps I will get lucky next time.

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  12. Not adding up says:

    So the article says seven new cases involving frontline staff however only six have been accounted for. Four from Kirk Home Centre, one from Foster’s Food Fair and one from A La Kabob. So where is the seventh positive result from?

    CNS: You’re the only person who picked up on my bad arithmetic.

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