17 more COVID-19 cases over four days
(CNS): In addition to the two positive results from samples taken by staff at Foster’s West Bay branch and two cases at HMP Northward reported over the holiday weekend, there were 13 more positive test results, including two from Cayman Brac, from 1,182 samples since the last report on Friday, Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee revealed at the press briefing on Tuesday.
1,088 tests were conducted by the HSA, where staff worked over the weekend and on Bank Holiday Monday, and 94 at CTMH Doctors Hospital, which did not operate their testing on Sunday or Monday. All 17 positive results were from the screening programme, Dr Lee said.
Dr Lee noted that the average positive rate over the four days is 1.44%, where the range has been between zero (no positives) and 2.57%,
Front-line healthcare workers have now all been screened as well as most staff at the supermarkets and staff and inmates in the prison service, and they are now working on testing construction workers, Dr Lee said.
So far 111 people have tested positive cases so far, three of them on Cayman Brac. Twelve people are symptomatic, 43 are asymptomatic, none are currently in hospital and 55 have recovered.
Ten people visited the flu clinic between 15 and 18 May. The flu hotline had 62 calls but 52 were not related to symptoms.
Category: Health, Medical Health
FREE CAYMAN! We have rights!
All these cases are actually a blessing in disguise, herd immunity is the only answer, government is just too dumb to realize!
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.”
Time to be held accountable is coming up; elections is coming up.
I think we all need a reality check.
The virus is here to stay and lots of people have probably had it and did not know.
Now for the BIG number, so far we know about 0.2% of Cayman’s population has tested positive for this virus but guess what ONLY 0.4% of the USA population has tested positive for it as well.
Why are we so scarred of a controlled re-opening of our airport!
If a half full 737 aircraft landed from the USA, there is less than 0.5% chance a person on that plane would have the virus and that’s without and type of pre-screening or monitoring in place.
Yes the numbers look bad in the USA BUT they have a population of over 300M
Don’t forget over 1650 people die per day in the USA from cancer alone but we don’t see that on the news every day.
Other Caribbean islands are opening up and will be having tourism from June but we are going to all sit here and hope there is a vaccine! That is NOT a plan that is stupidity!
Why can’t people get it through their heads? The death toll from cancer, suicide, heart disease can’t be compared to the death toll from this virus because those things are not contagious!!! It’s one thing for people to die of cancer, but they’re not going to take a slew of family members with them..
Many people here don’t need to die early from cancer or heart disease if we spent whatever it takes to improve our cancer and heart treatment and care here in Cayman and gave it for free no matter how much it costs. If you disagree then you must be ok with them dying and it’s been going on for decades.
Um, the dump is causing cancer!!! The government is forcing us to breath it by not doing anything about it!!! WAKE UP.
Many of us agree with this kind of common sense. However, until there is either a vaccine for the virus or a vaccine providing logical thinking instead of hysteria for CIG officials, we are doomed. Perhaps we could become a nation of tailors making and exporting face masks for the rest of the world.
Open your eyes my child….they are ridding Cayman of another disease, that of mass tourism. They’ve seized the moment, before you know it, we will be the Monaco of the Caribbean and Dart will have built 2 new 5 star hotels, the mega cruise ships shall never be allowed to return and Kirks can finally sell to the overlord, the plan is afoot and we are all just pawns….it’s happening infront of us …as we fly out a few hundred cheap tourism workers for good each week….but the plan only works if the borders stay closed thru 2022….tick tock
Give your head a shake. We don’t even have this plan in motion. There is no plan.
yet they reproduce, mutate, etc.
What is your definition of alive? I’d say viruses are alive, but just dormant when not infecting.
They all contain DNA or RNA just like all life, half or our DNA is thought to have been added buy retroviruses in the past.
Now are prions alive? that is a good question
Harvey, generally speaking this is not a good idea.
Well then what is the end game here. When is it safe to open up businesses and accept tourists again? Give me your plan.
The virus is not particularly good at sticking to plans. It is not currently safe or advisable to open up to tourists. That’s what we know. When will it be safe? We do not yet know.
A wise man knows when he does not know. The fool is always certain.
Are you certain about not opening borders?
Al Catraz – love the name, funny but sadly true, get back in your cell until you’re allowed out for exercise or well send the chopper after you and charge you like a criminal!! Wtf is going on?!
Where’s the human rights lawyer gone, we need help!!
I was with you until you referred to America as being the greatest country in the world!
Falling coconuts kill an estimated 150 people per year. Tonight, I put on my mask and go about the work of cutting down these devil trees.
… Jesus take the wheel…
I never got a drivers license. Wait, never mind…. that doesn’t stop people from driving here.
They also spread quite quickly every time a nut falls and sprouts, but methinks a crash helmet woujd be more effective than a mask.
How many people in Cayman have cancer or cardiovascular diseases, or other diseases?
Do we ban cancer causing foods or chemicals? What about the GMO mozzy program that failed?
Just to punish everyone is too much, lets ban cars because we have accidents.
Whats worst than dying from covid? Staying alive and having no funds to pay bills, eat or live. Might as well be dead?
If our hospitals are jammed packed and we have mass graves that is another story but come on really? All of this for a virus when we have people getting sick because they can’t get real health treatment.
and are any of the above mentioned highly contagious viruses for which most persons have little to no previous exposure, immunity or experience which targets the most vulnerable in our society?
Its hard seeing this much Faux News level stupidity being spouted in Cayman, the first thing we should have done when they were writing up regulations regarding SARS-CoV 2 is prohibited the airing and broadcasting of that garbage network as a matter of public safety
Think about it, the mortality rate for this virus is less than zero percent, you have more chance of dying from all the other things they mentioned, and more. Use some perspective!
What is an acceptable number of critically ill or dead for these anti-lockdown complainers to be satisfied? Obviously 10,000 sick or dead and they’d be ranting about not doing enough, but 111 infections with few critically sick or dead and they’re ranting that we did too much.
What’s their target number? 200 people in the ground? 5,000 critically ill? Then do they say “OK, the economic sacrifices are, in my subjective opinion, now in line with the human sacrifices, carry on”.
Unless of course it’s one of their own close friends or family on a ventilator or being buried (with no-one in attendance). Then they’ll be ranting again.
I don’t know why we can’t agree that you can’t put a price on life. If it costs us $1b to ensure that no-one dies from this pandemic, then I say that’s money well spent.
Normally I would think this is a troll post, but these days you never can tell..
I would be okay with 200.
Your mother, father, son or daughter as part of the 200?
Has your mother, father, son or daughter even traveled by car for anything non essential? Just wondering.
Hey, hey now, Money well spent on saving people when we all gonna die anyways? Now I am not saying we shouldn’t save people, but lets have a go, so lets spend/loose a few million/billion into debt so are children can pay it back because we sure all the retires on island are not gonna pay it back.
We’re all gonna die, honestly most of us here are on our last years.
Rather than going on in peace it’s a mass panic.
Protect the elderly I agree, but destroying the life of our youth and children isn’t worth it.
Not fair to the youth, most of the people we trying to save are 70+ plus years, had there time on earth. Why ruin it for the future generations that have little to start with.
Elderly had 80 years to save up, what about the 30 year old with 50k in student loans and now jobless.
Coming from a Caymanian.
We all will go someday. No one is forcing you outside, so please stay in and continue to live a very boring life. Remember, you only get 1 life before the long dirt nap.
I doubt your life is that great
I know it’s difficult to conceive of making these kinds of decisions, but that is reality. Everything in life involves risk assessment. It’s not productive to go back and criticise the government for decisions made in good faith. You’re right that people will complain on either end of the spectrum.
The reason we can’t agree not to put a price on life is that we do it all the time. If life was the paramount concern we wouldn’t have the dump where it is. That’s an easy example.
The hard truth is that if you came to any rational person with two choices, 1) The economy is devastated for years, 30% of people lose their jobs, the government can’t maintain spending and has to cut the civil service and reduce pay, crime increases substantially, property values fall and many people are forced to declare bankruptcy, many businesses close, projects are abandoned etc, thousands of people are unable to support their families and have to rely on handouts or 2) 100 people, mostly senior citizens with pre-existing conditions will die but things can otherwise continue as they were, it would actually make sense to choose option 2. Nobody will want to admit in front of others, and in truth most people who would make that decision would find it abhorrent and struggle with it. but it is still logically the choice that benefits the most people. Look at Boris Johnson. In theory his near-death experience should have made him more reluctant to open up society. Clearly he is not under the illusion that the virus is no big deal. But he recognises that it’s not realistic to completely protect everyone from dying and that countries need functioning economies to survive.
I don’t think it’s option 1 or option 2. I think it’s option 1, or it’s both. If we don’t voluntarily shut down the economy, the virus will shut it down for us and take out a lot of people on the way- and not “just” 100 elderly people either. Look around you at the rampant obesity, the diabetes, and the high blood pressure in Cayman plus limited healthcare- it would be a shit show.
Agreed,, and spot on. This virus is bad but the Caribbean healthcare system would make it a shit show!
I think this is a good argument for why it’s so important for people with underlying conditions to be extra careful. It also justifies certain restrictions in order to flatten the curve such as limiting large gatherings to try and keep.the spread at a manageable level. But even in the worst scenario, the deaths alone wouldn’t shut it down for us. If you take the elderly out of equation we are looking at numbers in the dozens rather than hundreds based on our population.
Option 2 is catastrophic and people would have to save themselves by getting healthy. Obesity, diabetes, cancer are very common in these islands but this can be fix by choosing a plant base lifestyle, along with flexibility exercised and more holistic living. A vaccine will never be found, btw, how can a vaccine be made for a RNA virus. This virus is here to fix the ills of the earth cause by us humans.
Governments put a price on life all the time. Whats the price of leaving the dump the way it is in terms of downstream cancers and respiratory illnesses? Whats the price of not spending more money on anti drunk driving patrols? If there is no price too high for saving lives, why doesn’t the government provide free medical care to everyone in Cayman on an unlimited cost per person basis? Or to look at it a different way, if the government spent all its money on avoiding a single COVID death and then someone without medical insurance died from some other disease or a stroke that could have been saved, was that money well spent? See – its not that easy.
::::::mic drop:::::
I don’t want the dump where it is any more than I want a coronavirus outbreak. But I definitely don’t want both.
That is the crux of this whole experience. For one, it’s a new — novel — virus in which humanity has not evolved an immunity against, and also one which leaves some survivors with permanent injury.
I have never been able to come up with a proper matrix of cost-to-life. I can’t do it. I am not personally afraid of the virus, but believe that those who have already paid their dues — veterans and seamen and their spouses, and our treasured elders — have a value that is not measurable.
Yes, our economy will be in the crapper. It is already. I don’t know the answer, but I believe in the model the government is using. They hope to contain and control the virus much as New Zealand did, and then reintroduce it on our own terms. That’s as good as it will get.
Agree with you. It is not only our elders, but others throughout the spectrum of people. I can and will sacrifice. My business is shut down. I will adapt to whatever is necessary to protect the people.
BUT! WHAT THEN BOZO??? I’ll tell you. If a vaccine (doubtful) or a treatment (unlikely) becomes available, we will have to decide how to allow people into the country. It will happen. CV will eventually find its way here again, but for now, we should control it, and gradually reopen the country within our borders.
Um, no one is sick from this in the last four weeks. Not one person. So your numbers are silly. But many will die from suicide, cancer, heart disease. Go back into your house, get under your bed, and thank God for the roof over your head that you deny me.
Let’s just get back to work, I don’t like this policy, what is the endgame here, get to zero cases, we should all just follow the lead of America (the greatest country in the world, after Switzerland) and open back up, who is with me.
I’m not!
@Harvey 9:51 AM, you started making sense until you said that America is the greatest country in world. Greatest for whom? If you are white and male, sure America probably is the greatest country because you will have access to the best available opportunities if you apply yourself. For the rest of us however, working hard and applying ourselves are only the beginning. Systemic classism, sexism and racism makes American life not so great for the vast majority. Add to that an egotistical, narcissistic president, uncontrolled proliferation of automatic and semi-automatic weapons and ammunition by belligerent mentally ill citizens, an unwillingness to provide universal healthcare to all, rampant gun violence, cronyism, nepotism, I could go on.
Great but not if you are one of the 50 million people with no health insurance and a pre existing condition.
America is great if you are a millionaire or billionaire and can afford a nice health insurance policy. You have been watching too many of Trump’s press conferences where he has to tell Americans that America is great.
You had me until you stated America was the best country in the world. Far from it.
Yes Harvey, with the greatest leader in the history of the world. A stable genius. 😱😱😱
27 percent of world wealth split by 4 percent of population. BoJo or President of Brazil could dress like a clown and no one would notice.
Admit it or not, by measures of finance, America is indeed Great.
It’s also am extraordinarly beautiful country, go to Colorado, Alaska, California or Hawaii.
Other things not so much, probably average but people sure pay attention to the leader, like them or not they are in the lead for now at least.
And Covid 19 stats EU is united when they talk about positive but when it comes to Covid, its Germany, its Italy… You get the point… Media spin EU trying to be great but they fake the funk.
@Harvey. You are right, the only people I hear saying keep it shut down are the people that haven’t felt the effects yet of this global crisis, its not affecting them now, they still have their jobs and all is well for them.
I’ve said and maintain, we haven’t seen anything yet just wait. They said we couldn’t “afford to lose one soul”, just you wait for what I call the “side effects” of this shutdown.
CI Government and other Global governments made a big mistake, sad they’re not going to admit it and now they are busy padding the numbers of deaths, last I heard a gentleman die in a horrible motorcycle accident and his caused of death was recorded as COVID19, because he tested positive.
Your right the US is a great country, our very existence depends on our neighbors to the north, to great extent the US. Our food, 30 to 40% of our economy is dependent on tourism and real estate generated from the great satan everybody loves to hate.
Are we going to hear from the Education Minister for a plan for schooling from August/September? Are schools to stay online? Are ELC’s going to open to let some kids go to public schools whilst parents work? Are schools going to have to limit students in class? Social distance? Teachers in masks? Team sports cancelled? Swimming? Etc
We need to plan now…who is in charge?
and then there is tourism…
No you are not going to hear from her because she simply has no idea.
Actually she is a bright and kind person in my experience.
Finally after the coming collapse we can get back to the way things were way back when life was simpler. I have been very careful what I wish for…
And it is to continue to get worse once you open up…..this may have been to rushed
Sorry I accidentally upvoted. It’s not soon enough, it’s not going away, stop fooling yourself, live your life or stay indoors…no one is forcing you outside.
Granted that increased testing would reveal more positive cases but 111 for Cayman with a population of 60,000 is far too many. Continued testing means its likely that number will rise. Compare us to Aruba, for example, 101 cases in a population of 106,000 or Curacao, 25 cases in a population of 160,000 – no new cases for the past 3 weeks! Per capita we are even surpassing Jamaica with 2 million people. We do not compare well with other Caribbean destinations. This is absurd and cause for greater concern!!
While I support what our Government has done, which has surely reduced the number of positives which could have been, easing restrictions at this times is not wise.
I don’t care what the lock-down critics say, how many “thumbs down” or how much criticism this comment gets, I say we need the lock-down to continue – in fact even tighten to a hard curfew most days every week for the next few weeks! We have no way of being absolutely sure that every positive case, or their contacts, are being safely isolated. Then of course, are the unknown asymptomatic cases, the real threat. They had to become infected by someone!!
I don’t care about the morons, greed-mongers, “freedom” proponents, I care about staying alive and covid-free!! More positive cases clearly means more risk to each of us!!
CNS – do you think it would be helpful to publish Caribbean-wide comparison figures for your readers, so as to present a perspective? Perhaps you can’t change opinions, but then again, maybe you can in some cases. That’s what good journalism is fundamentally about!
CNS: Yes, I’ve been trying to get to this for weeks. We are a two person operation and unfortunately there are limitations as to what we can do, especially when one is off sick, as is the case right now.
Flattening the curve does not stop the virus. It just slows it down. We are all going to get it or get to herd immunity. The point of social distancing and the other measures was to not overwhelm the hospitals. Any fantasy the government has about eradication or whatever was just that.
You realise that with asymptomatic cases you only detect and record them if you test, right? Look at the daily stats for Cay,an and see how many people were symptomatic – hardly any. If we had only recorded them, our stats would be way better than the countries you mention. You are not comparing like with like.
All of these infections came under the strict lockdown regime.
You are free to lockdown as long as you want, nobody is forcing you out of lockdown.
Great point!
I want freedom and should be able to have!
If any of you want lockdown then have that too no one is stopping you!
We have tested 4 times the amount of Aruba. Curaçao has tested 500 people. Can’t compare. We are fine
They aren’t testing like we are. Few are to be honest, and maybe nobody to our standard.
Yeps, fairly certain a lot of these other island countries are not presenting the most accurate picture due to less sample testing and so on. We are second in testing per capitas in this region for population.
Bermuda is a more appropriate comparison.
“Compare us to Aruba, for example, 101 cases in a population of 106,000 or Curacao, 25 cases in a population of 160,000 – no new cases for the past 3 weeks!”
And how much tests have they conducted?
4.58am The covid virus we have here has proven to be little worse then a good dose of local flu, but not so common. With nobody in hospital, no local deaths, and only 8 people with mild symptoms, why are you freaking out?. Why are we ruining people’s lives and our economy for this?. I am 75 years old and I’m not a moron or a greed monger, but just someone with common sense who can step back and see the real extent of our Cayman problem.
Nail hit firmly on the head, thank you.
CNS – If you do this PLEASE include the fact that some of these other islands are opening up and will have a tourism economy before a ” Vaccine ”
Everyone needs to know all the facts and risks vs rewards especially when we will be in lock down for possibly a year while other Islands are having a tourism economy and taking all our guests!
How did the two cases on the Brac get it? The original Brac case was well over a month ago and that person is now virus-free. So either the virus is present in one or more asymptomatic Brac residents who have contracted it from somebody else who has always been asymptomatic, who got it from the original case, OR it has been brought from Grand Cayman by someone travelling by plane.
Despite what was once said during a news conference, people wanting to fly to the Brac are not quarantined for two weeks, tested and upon a negative result taken by Public Health to the plane. Instead they are tested one day and then free to go about their business. If the result is negative the next day they are told to go to the airport and catch the plane.
Does that make any sense at all? A person may go and be tested, then pick up the virus somewhere, but the next day the test result says they are negative and so can fly.
Dead virus can stay in people for weeks and months. Hardly anyone is symptomatic in the Cayman Islands.
Dead is dead and can’t be revived.💀⛪️🏴☠️
Ummm, viruses are dead. They are never alive.
Too many people are traveling between Grand and Brac.
Yep it’s out there folks. Coming soon to a gathering near you
I’ve sent the invite. Baked a cake. I’m ready.
How many in hospital??????
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
The rest of that quote bears repeating
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State”
Exactly!!! LOL I came to say this same thing…
NONE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE IN HOSPITAL!!!! This is such overkill!!
Wow. The skeptics need to get their heads screwed on and read the int’l news, or go out and get the virus for themselves. This isn’t a movie, kids. The USA has 100,000 dead in just two months from this – with radical social distancing now being lifted, and against all medical warning. Watch and learn.
How many of those 100,000 people that died..actually died from Covid though?
About 200,000 of them according to the statistics. That’s once you count all the unexplained deaths during the pandemic and include things like car accident and stroke victims that would have survived of the healthcare system wasn’t busy fighting a pandemic.
9.56am The North Pole has temperatures of 100 below zero, but don’t worry we won’t freeze to death here.
Um, in the USA the hospitals get a very nice cheque from their government for every covid death. Even more if said patient was on a ventilator. So hell yeah they are putting covid down for as many deaths as they can. Even if they never tested the patients.
CNS: Fox News + social media = Dangerous BS and conspiracy theories. Here are the facts.
Yeah, it’s only for the Medicare patients, same coverage as usual, the CARES act added 20% for COVID-19 related treatment of Medicare patients. Hospitals themselves may not openly admit it but it would be out of the ordinary for them NOT to take full advantage of the additional coverage provided by Medicare or any other insurance company.
Back in 2017, the average Medicare payment for respiratory infections and inflammations with major comorbidities or complications was $13,297, add 20% to that if the patient has COVID-19. For more severe hospitalizations, the average Medicare payment back in 2017 for a respiratory system diagnosis with ventilator support for greater than 96 hours, was $40,218.
Taking into account that the CDC guidelines allow for fairly liberal COVID-19 diagnosis, it’s easy to understand why people assume the COVID-19 numbers in the USA are being padded, at least for Medicare patients.
We aren’t using critically ill or deaths as our failure performance yardstick. Nobody in the press conferences guaranteed that asymptomatic necessarily stay that way. Boris Johnson certainly didn’t. That’s the tricky thing about this new virus, and why there’s a global pandemic underway. Asymptomatic can be shedding live active virus from hijacked cells that are not killed, and can do this for many days presenting no hint of symptoms until they are overwhelmed. Many of our 55 active cases are probably feeling some version of the sickest they’ve ever felt. It would be instructive to get some of our local recovered to address the panel via Zoom and answer media questions. There are people in Cayman that have lost dear friends and loved ones to this virus, so be careful with your inference that this is a harmless or normal disease. It is not.
So they are asymptomatic, but feeling really sick (because feeling really sick isn’t a symptom?). Or, they are asymptomatic now, but just wait, they are going to get really ill and maybe die. Including all the ones that tested positive weeks and weeks ago, but so far haven’t made their way into hospital or the morgue? Right. OK, so your response is to then say we are measuring the wrong thing – we shouldn’t fixate on the critically ill or deaths, but those proving positive. But be honest, the reason we are locked up is not because we may have a disease that doesn’t even manifest itself in symptoms, its exactly because in other countries people do die from it or get hospitalised.
Facts are stubborn things. They may conflict with your view of what should be happening based on what has happened elsewhere, yet stubbornly enough we keep finding people who are positive that have no symptoms, but what we dont seem to keep finding is seriously ill people entering hospital let alone dying, no matter how much better that would fit your view that the virus as it manifests here in Cayman is identical to the outcome that can be expected in Italy or New York