1,000s of PPE kits and test swabs arrive
(CNS): A shipment of 30,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, vital for front-line healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients, and 52,000 swabs necessary to testing for the virus arrived in Cayman Thursday. With both in short supply, the PPE kits made their way here with the help of Health City Cayman Islands, while the Dart facilitated the arrival of the swabs, both working with government. All the critical equipment came from China, with everyone involved in the shipments tackling challenges to get them here.
“Testing remains a vital objective for government and a key part of our strategy to open-up the economy whilst keeping everyone in Cayman safe,” said Governor Martyn Roper, who worked with Dart to get the swabs here. “The process and logistics of ensuring we can do this are challenging. We have had great successes with procuring the testing kits from Korea, extraction kits from the USA and UK, and now this new order of swabs, which are absolutely vital. The battle continues, however, to ensure that our labs receive other vital supplies.”
Chris Duggan from the Dart logistics team said it was vital for the public and private sectors to collaborate in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were very happy to be able to leverage our contacts and resources to facilitate the procurement of these swabs, and it was the collective efforts of the Dart team, and the teams at the HSA and the governor’s office that enabled us to successfully get them to Cayman.”
Meanwhile, as PPE supplies have been dwindling, the HSA has struggled to get full kits as much larger countries push small jurisdictions like Cayman out of the market. But Health City Director of Business Development Shomari Scott said that hospital was strategically positioned to help because of the partnership with large government-owned Chinese manufacturers through Narayana Health, the Indian health group that owns Health City.
“Due to these over-a-decade-long partnerships, Health City was able to get a quick production slot with the manufacturers ahead of much larger countries,” Scott said, noting that they were also able to procure the full kits. “After Health City started the procurement process, the Chinese government stopped the majority of companies that had only recently started producing these supplies in order to curb issues with the quality. Thankfully, Health City was well placed with one of the established manufacturing companies
that was approved to produce the authentic goods,” he explained.
Cabinet Secretary Samuel Rose and the governor’s office were also instrumental in getting the kits through the Chinese bureaucracy and inspections so that they could leave China. In an effort to avoid shipping through the US, given the issue over seizures there, the PPE followed a winding route via Mexico and Jamaica, with the shipment being split up into smaller planes on its last leg from Jamaica to Cayman.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Health, Medical Health
Cayman Airways gone St Lucia to pick up a few droppers? At what price?
Well done all concerned.
Why in the world are these efforts being told and broadcast to the entire internet
??? Is it just to stroke certain people egos and get them noted or recognized? These epic tales of snatching supplies for Cayman DO NOT need to be advertised nor their intricate travel details nor routes and logistics and Cayman’s influential connections need to be laid out for the entire world to know, It’s not smart nor is it strategically wise do so, not all governments nor persons reading these online articles may see this in a positive light and certainly not certain transnational crime syndicates or criminal gangs or elements in these jurisdictions who may actually find it advantageous or informative and may decide to jack or rip-off or divert one of these now valuable shipments for their own financial benefit or gain . Please stop these egomaniacs from doing this foolishness Governor Roper The pictures of persons at the ORIA airport pose off like the medical Sopranos is comical and a breach of airport Regulations.Not blaming CNS for putting out the story obviously fed to them but we need a common sense approach to these situations. A quick mention and pics of arrival of supplies and thanking those involved would suffice Cayman?
10:26 It is call Transparency same as y’all CRY for!
Can you say why no prison staff have been tested to date?
Great , will they ever use them before they unlock everything and kill us all?
The swabs are com China?
So how many people are actually in the hospital with Covid? (in Cayman)
CNS: This is stated at every press briefing. Just read the most current update on testing or watch the video.
Three.
One. Two are in for other reasons. #fakepandemic
It’s not a fake pandemic. It’s a learning curve and some countries did better than others. What will come from this is that leaders should know their capabilities to handle disasters before they happen. We are so focused on hurricanes but no one knew what to do when the earthquake hit kind of mentality.
We are way ahead of covid and should now re evaluate our strategy. What we did in the beginning was great but it no longer pertains to our situation.