Bio-buttons lead way on phased border opening
(CNS): Government will be depending on the use of bio-buttons or bio-stickers with GPS fencing (a location monitoring system) as it begins a six month phased reopening of the borders to air travellers in September. On Friday Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell revealed some of the ideas the ministry is considering to enable a slow and safe return of limited visitors here, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. This phased return of tourism will use testing and technology instead of lengthy quarantine.
The plan is still in the embryonic stage and will require much more work before it can be rolled out and tourists actually return. It will begin with residents, owners of second homes and some visitors coming on repatriation flights. The goal is to change the quarantine system on 1 September from government mandated facilities to people isolating in their own homes or in hotels.
The minster said that the government was not going to take any risks, given the success Cayman has had in tackling the virus, but despite the concerns, keeping the borders closed indefinitely was not a reasonable or sustainable situation. However, he stressed that this will be a very conservative approach.
“Safety and security will remain the main drivers in decision making,” Kirkconnell said. “We prefer to err on the side of caution.”
Government is considering an application system that will allow what is expected to be a very small number of visitors or even returning residents to avoid the 14-day mandated quarantine by first taking a test 72 hours before departing the country where they are and have a negative result. Potential visitors will fill out an online application where they provide the test result.
TravelTime will then consider the application and decide, depending on the circumstances and where the applicant is coming from, whether or not to approve the visitor. Those cleared to come will arrive at Owen Roberts International Airport, where they will receive the bio-button.
Chief Medical officer Dr John Leehas been testing the device that will be used to monitor visitors, which has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. It measures temperature, pulse and breathing and issues an alarm if any of the levels spike.
This health monitoring device will also have a geo-fencing component, so the button will not only measure a visitor’s health indicators and alert public health to a potential infection, it will ensure that the visitor stays in their designated accommodation. Visitors will be required to isolate for five days in that designated accommodation before taking a COVID-19 test. If it is negative, they can leave isolation but must continue to wear their bio-sticker.
Given the work that this will require and the cost of the device, visitors will be asked to pay a flat registration fee before they come to Cayman. The minister indicated that it would be in the region of “a couple of hundred dollars” per visitor and said that revenue stream could cover the costs of the monitoring programme.
As the minister spoke about the phased reopening of tourism, it was clear that many issues must still be ironed out before this new system can be implemented, and the minister said more details would be revealed over the next few weeks.
Check back to CNS for more on how the phased reopening of tourism will work.
See the full COVID-19 briefing on CIGTV below:
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I don’t like the look of it.
This is not really an opening of the borders.
The deputy Premier said the only flights in Sept will be the repatriation ones so this is really only for residents, work permit holders or the rich second home owners.
@ 1.14 That’s not how I read it. I thought this was an opportunity for Europeans to go home for a holiday and then follow the procedures for re-entering Cayman? I’m confused.
can the government tell us which labs in which countries will be approved for people to go to, to take the test
why is the government making it so difficult to travel to Cayman, as a Caymanian id like to be able to travel overseas but getting back home to Cayman is almost impossible, can only travel on repatriation flights back in unless I have a private jet and testing and so on and so on and so on……ridiculous
Turn on your tv occasionally
The point about a private jet is a good one tho – notice too how it was that some people had permission to quarantine in the Ritz way before it was publicly known that there was an alternative to the Holiday Inn – especially if the government facility was full. Now you can escape the 14 day quarantine and isolate a home for only 5 days – but only if you have a means of getting here (private jet or one of the rare seats on an inbound Cayman flight, allocated by travel time), and have travel times blessing that you are important enough. One system for the rich and powerful (and no doubt government) and one for everyone else.
Would it be fair if you had the means to have your own jet but couldn’t use it because everyone else doesn’t have one? Are you concerned because it threatens someone’s health or just coveting?
I think this is a good first step. We can’t stay isolated forever, and I expect there will be a pretty low demand, mostly from 2nd homeowners, returning Caymanians and snowbirds.
I would have preferred to see a 10 day self isolation, but, that I guess would be an abundance of caution.
I looked over the Travel Application, it mentions the UK, Miami, travel dates, Canada to be arranged (TBA). How’s that, when Canada has the virus better under control then the UK and Miami.
Who ever thought of this 🤔 complicated, if you ask me, they could had a better procedure put in place.
This just goes to show, maybe we should stop seeking most of our tourists from the US, because we can’t wait for them forever. We should advertise to countries where they have the virus under control and keep our borders closed to Americans like what the EU’s done.
Yeah and which country has a 24 trillion dollar economy and 400 million people in close proximity. We can advertise in Cuba all day or Honduras or Mexico but they ain’t coming Jack!
Parts of the US, which happens to be a fairly large country, do have the virus under control. So much so those States have travel restrictions on other States. Our idiots and paranoids think the only ports of entry to the US are wherever the virus is out of control!
The closest and main ports of entry from the US to Cayman is where the virus is raging: Miami and Tampa. Hence the concern from the people here.
That might be closer port to Cayman, but not everyone comes that way. I try to avoid MIA ,if possible , even before Covid as a travel hub.
The virus has to get to herd immunity otherwise it will not be going anywhere. I wish the CI government would follow the Science and stop being a bunch of morons. Really how are we going to revive our Tourism sector under these conditions. Protect to the elderly and persons with comorbidities and let the virus run its normal course.
McCarron: I think you are a little behind the latest on The So-called Herd immunity. It seems it may not actually exist. Doesn’t appear that immunity lasts very long.
That is actually very worrying as it doesn’t auger well for an effective vaccine.
How can herd immunity ever occur when people were quarantined for months, children not being allowed in school. People wearing masks outside and in their vehicles, breathing in carbon dioxide, cant be good.
Let’s assume what you are saying is true, then say bye bye to your life and society as a whole.
Boris is that the moronic you?
Reading most of these comments, its a fair bet that the majority of the country are not in favor of dropping the 14 day quarantine regardless of any fancy tech or weekend at Cayman Kai to test it (really?!).
The 14 day is obviously a problem to enable people back, but then, so is 5 days in reality for any tourist. So we’ve already acknowledged the borders are not really reopening anytime soon except for those already coming back anyhow – residents, families of students, long stay 2nd home owners, friends of Ken and Alden, that kinda thing, maybe the occasional actor or musician who may or may not be hiding out in Cayman Kai.
Fine, but can someone explain to me how getting a test 3 days before you fly stops you getting the virus in the 3 days between flight and test?
if i was in government, I’d be paying attention to public sentiment finally – because opening the borders has real concern for most, and its valid.
So government has decided to abandon the gold standard of 14 days isolation with PCR testing at the end of that time for a totally untested marl standard that only detects 93% of infectious people. Wonderful.
All because they wouldn’t let people quarantine at home.
Sorry to disappoint you but the PCR is NOT a gold standard, there is no gold standard, it actually is not even supposed to be used for diagnostic purposes, but I think the media has forgotten that small detail…. If another test was actually, as you stated, detecting infectious people that would be an improvement as the PCR test does not detect infection only DNR.
Bio Bottom and who may i ask dear sir in government or connected to gov’t is the benefactor of this Great idea?? No problem with letting in Limited exclusive tourists to come here to recover from Covid 19 it probably will help their mother country and we will in return earn some much need foreign currency to fund this govt beast. How about limiting our expenditure also by you guys taking a much need salary cut to help out and not depending on our father Dart for erryting? As one poster pointed out, exactly how are you guys protecting our borders from illegals coming in?
The religious nuts are claiming this means the world is ending because we’re getting the mark of the beast and cash is becoming obsolete like floppy disks.
Can we please allow technology to progress? I can’t wait for my smartphone to be able to give me a health diagnosis from integrated biochips.
I’m not religious or believe those wackos but I also don’t want any government tracking me.
At the end of the day it doesn’t even have to be a religious thing. Nobody wants a chip implanted in them so they can be tracked and watched 24/7. It’s a DEEP invasion of privacy.
Why should we accept an approach that only identifies 93% of infected people? There are other strategies that catch 99%+.
Bermuda requires 4 PCR to keep its population safe.
Travellers (visitors and residents) with a pre-departure negative PCR COVID-19 result must test on day four, day eight and on day 14.
https://www.gov.bm/coronavirus-travellers
What I would like to know is, how safe is my information that I send to Travel Time? Yesterday’s press briefing stated that, travelers will need to submit A copy of the Covid medical in addition to a memoir of yourself. Take a look at the form and you will see it is seriously overreaching.
How do I know my data will be protected and not leaked? Everything else gets leaked out so what safeguarding mechanisms are in place at the Travel Time and the people behind the unanswered phone line? I’m not being difficult here or putting the team down, but everything in Government is leaked and in more recent times have picked up greater pace. Before it was just the verbal leak now you see employees leaking out actually documents to social platforms. I’m yet to see it being addressed or anyone being held accountable for the leak. Dear Mr Deputy Governor, a leak is really not that difficult to trace
CNS please put the fire 🔥 to Government on this very conceding matter. They’ve deferred a lot of questions posed to them in Fridays press briefing and spoke nothing about protection of data.
I understand we can’t close forever however, USA are our main customers and they are banned from traveling into Europe etc etc etc, do you seriously plan to let Americans in here? Let alone others who can’t take a test at a hotel a day before their flight or two days before travel ? This is a road to covid if ever I saw one,
We do not have to be closed. We just have to have quarantine. Thousands are willing to come into Cayman through quarantine. They will stay and spend for months. Why not facilitate them?
What are you talking about. NO negative test NO travel.
Safety and security don’t make us laugh coming from the minister who’s foolish decision started this pandemic ball rolling in Grand Cayman and then ran off to his quarantine utopia to hide. who by the way is already allowing certain special visitors and elites to turn up here while keeping common folk from returning home.Tell us Moses how you and this rinky dink government are protecting our borders from unwanted criminals infected with Covid 19 from entering these islands from hotspots overseas . Cayman prepare yourself people are going to get sick and loose their lives that is inevitable but if quarantine had work as they claim we should have cleared 3 months .Its obvious it’s still getting in somehow .Stop allowing the chosen few to enter these islands is start.
Now people who have Covid are unwanted criminals. Turns out one doesn’t need Covid to be a severely sick individual.
Who are these ” Special Visitors or Elites? If you know the facts and know who they are name them as it the truth? Bet you can’t!
And are you calling us Camanians and residence that want to travel home and come and go criminals?
Your comment is stupid!
The Exclusive Few, THANK YOU! I have been saying the same thing! All you can see is these private jets coming and going. Meanwhile our people have been patiently waiting to return home but are being denied because there “isn’t enough space in the quarantine facility”. It sickens me how our Government are so spineless and bend for a buck. Yet we are supposed to have faith that they will protect us. If they did they would keep our borders closed for longer and actually take time to formulate a proper plan. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
Exclusive few! Yeah they forgot about call them back Moses. Brac has an international airport. Moses boost the Bracs economy and let them bio button over there for 5 days
John Lee, who from appearances does not have Covid-19, wearing one of the bio-buttons on a stay-cation at the Kai is about as far from a scientific approach to deploying this technology for Covid-19 monitoring as it is possible to get. What is next, a divining rod made out of a noni branch in place of PCR testing???
They are doing 2 PCR tests per person.
What are you talking about?
Government has dropped the 14 day gold standard- as John Lee said yesterday- pCR testing 3 days before and 5 days after will allow 7% of infected people through
Bio-buttons have not been validated as a reliable tool for the detection of Covid-19 by any scientific body.
There is no right answer to reopening, there will be a risk no matter what. It becomes an issue of reasonable, practical, and realistic approach to reopening. Certainly requiring a negative test within 3 days of arrival is a must. It takes 3 days for your test to be postive once infected, thus requiring a second test within 3 days of arrival to the island will catch the vast majority of cases. It will not be perfect, but no other measure will be either except continuing complete closure till all virus in the world is gone or an effective vaccine is produced. These events are not coming soon.
The bio buttons, although well intentioned are fraught with problems. Measuring heart rate and breathing rate? Neither have been shown to correlate absolutely with infection. What if someone is exercising and their heart and breathing rates go up, what alert is going to occur? Who is going to respond? It is a practical nightmare. Temperature monitoring does correlate, but what if someone is isolating on their balcony in the sun and the alert goes off as “fever.” Will the button stay on with sweat, suntan lotion? What about its wireless connectivity, the island is not perfect in its wireless coverage.
There is no right answer to reopening, but the bio buttons are a waste of money and will create logistical chaos. Best to limit the reopening in numbers of arrivals, and repetitive testing.
So, having worked so hard and effectively to create a possible bubble that allows us all to safely go about our daily lives, and hug our loved ones, gather as a community – with a working quarantine system keeping us all safe and protecting our position one one of the few safe places on the planet – the government is determined to pop it – right about the time our children will be going back to school.
Why? For some expatriate hotel workers and foreign owned hotels that refuse to provide quarantine facilities?
I get government needs money, but never so much as to risk the security of the people with so little in return.
How about we maintain safe and effective quarantine to allow people in, for extended stays, and government cuts some of its wasteful expenditure instead?
Don’t forget the millionaire restaurant owners who are almost starving from lower profits.
Turns out that not all our lives matter after all when it comes to the almighty dollar and the need to risk everything to keep civil servants paid to stay home and not work.
Or better yet we just keep the border closed and take the financial loss until the vaccine is available later this year. What is the big rush for September? Just wait and start in January 2020 when the vaccine is rolled out. CNN has Miami as the epicenter for the virus in Florida and we know Caymanians can’t help ourselves from going to Miami.
I don’t think it’s coincidence that you watch CNN and think they’re a vaccine will be available later this year. Just a heads up, there is no guarantee there will even be a vaccine!
It’s a bubble that will be popped one way or another because not all of us live 100% of the time on the island. You cannot compare our educational standards to vastly superior institutions elsewhere. This is also true of medicine. I won’t even get into business. Even in the old days Cayman did not live in a bubble. Plenty of Ebanks in the Bay Islands and Jamaica.
Nobody in CIG has commented on what will be their test standard before allowing flights from the US to land in Cayman. This in the context of the avalanche of new cases in US over the past month.
Would they accept the word of the US government that there no longer was a dangerous level of Covid in that country, and no chance of passengers carrying the virus back to Cayman.
They will require a RT-PCR test from an accredited lab, Just like every other country that has the same system for travellers.
Why make it sound like we are any different.
Except testing in the USA requires 5 to 10 days to get results, so even that part of this idiotic plan is a non starter.
My daughter got one returned in 19 hrs – Ohio. Whoo hoo, negative.
Please do not present facts to our local Covid experts!
Ah, but was the test taken 72 hours or less before takeoff?
Because Cayman’s approach drops the 14 days plus PCR test at the end gold standard. John Lee said yesterday that what is proposed will catch only an estimated 93%. In other words what is proposed will let 7% of infected people free to wander the community spreading disease.
They haven’t thought this through at all. Our Government is JOKE
Look at their numbers. You think they are hiding the virus? It’s quite transparent which States are doing well and which are not.
Why Sept 1, given the accelerated transmission rates in the airport hub cities? How does Moses think it would be safer now (than it was months ago) to fly into those hubs in 45 days? It seems like a counter-intuitive aggressive timeline given what we are seeing, Mr Kirkconnell.
Let’s not disregard how much we have all collectively invested by taking time to grind this out, and test like few other places on Earth. We don’t need to rush to open any floodgates or raise and lower the drawbridge for every recreational traveler and dog crusader. There is no tourism.
Every boarding school and university in the western world has announced to their parents/enrollees that they have prepared to run elearning again for at least the entire Fall term, and maybe longer. Many kids have already knocked-off an accelerated credit for next year this summer via elearning. There is no urgency to get any Caymanian resident kid back to any school in North America or Europe.
Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
You say there is no Tourism!
You are talking BS. One other BOT is opening and has 40% bookings at some other the hotels.
Every boarding school and university in the western world? Wow. Yet dorms are open. Is your future doctor learning surgery online?
Your statement about schools grossly oversimplifies the situation. Not all kids do well with online learning, nor is it generally considered the best way to learn. Not all programs can be properly taught online – try doing a chemistry lab, playing in an orchestra or taking a trade course, to say nothing of the mental health and other impacts of being alone in front of a screen all day. Many students (and parents) have invested time and money into their education and suggesting that it makes no difference whether they go back to school physically (which, contrary to your assertion, many schools are doing in whole or in part) or sit in front of a computer is just wrong. We will be living with this virus for a while and suggesting that the education of a generation be compromised is not a viable option. Very little is being realistically done by CIG to help their next generation get on with the crucial work of getting a solid education, whether on island or off.
We don’t have the police for this. All our hard work and investment for nothing…and for what?
These are the same people that think it’s still a good idea to build a port for cruise ships that don’t exist anymore!!! You think they could implement this?
Do you realize how dumb this comment is? I don’t recall when referendum signatures were being sought the argument that there would be no cruise ships in the future.
I think you may want to reconsider how dumb your comment is. Pretty sure cruises will go bye bye. They are full of viruses, cheap, wasteful-eco-disasters.
Which millions of people love to use. Same goes for planes by the way. And they’re taking off every day.
Why is the sandbar closed to private boats? The explanation given made no sense at all. The irony is that they have opened to commercial boats who are the biggest violators of the WIZ regulations.
And Rum Point is off limits by boat?! Let’s not forget the owner also owns tender boats so was anti-port, hold a grudge much Mr. Premier…
Bio-buttons? Good luck with that when it comes to half the American tourists. The Trumpers will say it’s the mark of the beast. Ask our education minister Julianna about it if you’re not up to speed.
They should be forced to wear it in the center of their forehead so that we can know who they are and be able to stay 100 feet away and not frequent any business or facility they are in or near!
Just like Nazis made the the Jews wear armbands with the Star of David? You do realize not everyone has Covid? Your comment reeks of ignorance and fear. What a disgrace!
Your analogy is what is disgusting. How are the public to know who is walking around with biotabs within 5 days of arrival? It is a fair point.
At least an armband is more discreet than the a mark on the forehead! My comment was spot on. As A Jew I would know!
So it’s a fair point to mark people, in the middle of the forehead, but disgusting to compare that to armbands on Jews? Should we have marked the Jews in the forehead? The point is, the persons who have followed protocol are innocent! And percentage wise Covid free! They do not deserve to be marked in the forehead despite your desire to do so.
If Americans don’t want to use the bio-buttons, then they should be refused entry. End of story.
As an America, I have no problem with the Bio-Buttons. But many other of the needed qualifications are too uncertain and dependent on local expertise (Gee, corrupt officials, failed port project, dump, traffic, etc. no progress on any of the prior issues). We and our dollars will be back in mid 2021 – hope CIG gets its act together by then… I won’t hold my breath.
Keep your dollars and your piss poor attitude. Stay tf in America, as if your President is something to boast about.
Cayman may not be perfect but at least we are doing 1,000 times better than you idiots.
Oh please our Government is Sunday school teachers compared to Trump. The USA can’t say anything about anyone’s government right now. You all are a mess and need to get your crap together.
They can’t carry guns here either. It’s our island and our rules. No one has ever said otherwise!
Seriously…would you want to be monitored on your vacation? I seriously doubt it. Plus, how do Americans really know that they won’t get Covid on their cayman vacation? Cayman may not be getting a lot of cases, but there are still cases on island and it only takes one to pass it along.
Thank you. It only takes 1 tourist with Covid to wreck havoc on the tiny islands of Cayman.
Good the trumpsters can stay in the USA. PERFECT!!!
I guess Democrats can’t catch Covid? Or is that they know the real test result numbers?
They wear face masks
You’re right. That’s why the rioters didn’t catch covid! So all we have to do is open Cayman and mandate masks in public. Problem solved.
Sorry I downvoted! You’re correct!
Okay. There seems a plan is in the making. All we need now is this incredibly efficient government to execute the plan in a timely and orderly fashion. Six months beginning 1 September is not acceptable. Do we allow people in on the 1st of September and hope the bands work? Or do we get the bands now, test it on Caymanians wanting to return home and be confident the system can work for 1 September? Hmmm.
But if you follow the press conference detail you see that commercial flights are not opening on Sept 1. The only bio button, 5 day self quarantine people will be those on private jets already coming in vmbut unhappy at being forced to slum it for 14 days in the Ritz, and returning residents IF they can persuade Eric Bush that they are important enough to get a bio button rather than the Hanoi Hilton.
Thank you. But planes are going in and out weekly. Test the systems with Caymanians flying home on those planes.
Good luck! Who wants to live that kind of life?
The funny thing is people think they can outsmart nature, the virus in this particular case. Good luck with that as well.
No we can’t outsmart it. We have to live with it.
Seriously? Knowing our government’s success rate in running anything properly, hands up who thinks this is going to work properly? Thousands of people who should be isolated will be wandering freely around the island on vacation, infecting themselves, each other and us and the monitoring won’t do a damned thing about it. If it even works in the first place. A bio sticker with geofencing? You think anyone is going to keep this on? I know let’s just take off the sticker and leave it in our room then we can go anywhere we like. Duh. With the long incubation period of covid (up to 15 days perhaps), any negative test on arrival is of little meaning.
Incubation means nothing thats the time to show symptoms.
A PCR test will work 4 days after exposure and 7 days being optimal so the 2 testing system is a good idea. Read up on PCR testing before trying to scare people.
As for removing the button it will alert the athorities strait the way. These devices where meant for all sorts of monitoring. No hart rate will instantly be alerted.
Learn to spell before trying to provide unrealistic reassurances.
Just guessing but suspect that if you take the sticker off the lack of respiratory and temperature data may JUST trigger an alarm. You think it’s sophisticated enough to have GPS fencing but not report a loss of its primary data? Be a bit like just taking off an ankle tag.
I wonder if just putting tin foil over it works?
Like you haven’t heard of parents putting their fitbits on their active kids to win prizes for competitions at work? Please, people will have another person wear the monitor while they go out and visit the bars.
tourism is dead till we get a vaccine…and even then it will be slow recovery over many years. the oncoming recesssion will be many time worse than the 08 crash
You are clearly right, and yet no indication of any cost cutting by government. It even continues to pay the salaries of expatriate bus drivers who are sitting at home doing nothing, while it also pays the salaries of Caymanian taxi drivers who are sitting at home doing nothing.
Seriously?
My family had to already cancelled our April and July trip and not planning to be tracked on our December trip. That is not a vacation and our family wears masks whenever we go out.
We may get a port before we get a vaccine.
they are copying bermuda. end of story. dut as usual delayed cayman style.
What is proposed for Cayman does not copy Bermuda at all. Cayman’s approach will be to allow infected people to wander around infecting others.
Bermuda has a sensible approach specifically:
Travellers (visitors and residents) with a pre-departure negative PCR COVID-19 result must test on day four, day eight and on day 14.
https://www.gov.bm/coronavirus-travellers
Right BUT as a person who was just there you are free to move around and keep testing on your required days.
You isolate while waiting the first test on arrival.
DO NOT spread lies!!!!!
Rubbish – visitors are only moving around freely until they are caught.
By which time it is too late….
Bermuda requires home isolation, which is what many are against.
6:37. Are you awake. Cayman following Bermuda. Bermuda has 7 deaths are you kidding. Cayman is leading we don’t follow.
What happens if you get the virus after the test but inside the 3 days before you fly here?
When are you supposed to book your ticket? After your test result inside 3 days of a flight that doesn’t really exist in that timeframe?
That presentation was so hard to follow and clearly showed that they’ve not got this thing worked out at all, so why go into it at all?
Bizarre
And if you have it on the flight there is some prospect of you infecting other passengers, and then the r-naught will truly have an opportunity to cause havoc on our now open community.
Remind me why we wear masks?
Rational people don’t.
Who in the world waits 72 hours before a flight to book a trip? Especially in high season?
Yup, I understand the intent, but it will not be acceptable. We will just have to accept that most tourists/property owners will not return until easier terms allow. After a vaccine? Guess what, many will not take the vaccine!
6:34 am: you are right that the presentation was hard to follow. Thank God for the media to try to make sense of what the Deputy Premier was trying to communicate.
These guys do not realise that they need to prepare. All about ego. Makes themselves look unnecessarily bad. And it is not as if they do not have the appropriate resources available in government to help them. They just won’t use them. Silly.
Cayman is simply a world leading jurisdiction in everything we do. Kudos to all.
5.26am Spoken like a born Caymanian, I do believe this is not sarcasm.
Anon. Isn’t that’s why you don’t want to leave?
Cayman is better than where you drifted in from.
Anon. But isn’t that’s why you are in Cayman?
Admit it! Cayman is leading in every way.
@ 5.26 Drugs man, the drugs, you’re on the drugs!
You muppets can’t even sort out your main revenue earners I.e customs and immigration and now you are going to create a whole new civil service department so it too can fail. Let me guess who owns part of the company coming up with the supporting software. XXXX Idiots
4;05 stop posting so early in the morning. You sound stupid. Trust me you need a good night sleep.
An absolute joke! As a caymanian with property on the island with 3 trips planned between September and January I can state I won’t be returning under these terms. How can you be expected to get food and provisions if you can’t leave the property for 5 days? Add to this additional expense for the privilege of visiting what is already an expensive place in the first place. If this is the approach taken I’d rather sell my property and go elsewhere where I can be safe and get better value.
I’ll buy it, but only if you promise not to come back. You plainly have no concern or love for the Caymanian people.
You probably cannot afford it, but perchance you can, it will be worthless, so good luck with the display of testicles.
You should read it properly: I am caymanian!
That does not mean you have any fondness for Cayman. It may just mean you selected the right real estate agent in 2003.
Must be one of those who found their “Caymanian” status in the mass give away provided by McKeeva.
You wouldn’t suggest there was anything improper a about any of those grants, would you? There cannot be. Our robust law enforcers would have done something about it, and they haven’t even been bothered to investigate. Nothing to see here. Move along.
3:23 selfish and totally not Caymanian
3:23. Who cares.
Watch out folks for another lock down in October
Yes, we know this is on the cards. Some of us had the foresight to leave. Good luck, brothers and sisters.
We must carefully rethink this move. Reopening too soon will create a greater risk economically and health wise than what is happening in our country at the moment. Is the present government so bound on risking the lives of the people of the Cayman Islands?
The start of the new year will be a better time frame. Is the government that prepared? I think not.
Does this mean the post office staff will have to go back to work?
Nope
Can anyone explain why the covid regulations can be used to keep us out of Rum Point and Kaibo in a boat?
They cannot. Alden showed his hand. This appears to plainly happening at the request of certain landowners. These are in fact beach access rights – and are being suspended, if not taken.
Greed makes this lot do some dumb things!
Thank you DART because we all know who is really running the Cayman Islands and it ain’t Alden Moses McKeeva Joey or the UNITY gowermint
Wendy, thanks for lending some clarity to the communication by the Deputy Premier.
Accurate and well expressed.
Another example of the importance of the press.
Well done.
The first 1000 people admitted after 1 September should be required to have negative PCR tests 3 days before they fly and then they should be tested at 5 days and 10 days after they arrive before being permitted the run of the islands. If the completely untested (in this context) ‘button’ technology and the 3 days before and 5 days after strategy catchs all of the infected people, then maybe think about dropping the test at 10 days after arrival. Otherwise government is using the people of Cayman like guinea pigs.
Take that Mr. And Yet No Plan Guy! Hmm. I take that back. Now they are working on a plan, which by default means and no plan yet.
I understood from what Dr. Lee said that the proposed protocol involving a PCR test 72 hours before flying and another test 5 days after arrival would detect 93% people with Covid-19, but would also allow 7% of infected people into the community. That is a very poor standard.
Why are we not following a protocol that also requires a second PCR test on island after 10 days on as some other jurisdictions are doing. That approach would mean that less than 1% of infected people would be released into the community. Do we really want 7% of infected people mingling with our population?
That would require 100% of those arriving being infected. With cases per 100,000 in the U.S. around 1.1% that would equate to approx. 7% of 1.1% (obviously an oversimplification without knowing the exact origin, age, of the arriving tourists) of those arriving, or approx. 0.077%, getting passed the two PCR testing requirement. Additionally, the BioSticker is expected to identify symptoms very early during infection so those people can be identified, tested and quarantined if necessary. The tracking feature allows BioButtons and BioStickers to signal to one another as well as to BioHubs and cell phones running the app. This will allow the health authorities to quickly know who has been nearby an infected person and for how long, expediting the notification and treatment of others that may have been in contact and also infected.
Ridiculous. No scientific body has accredited Bio-Buttons or Bio Stickers as Covid-19 detection devices. Further, the true rate of infection in the US is unknown and most of our US visitors fly from areas with terrible statistics. The more they test the more cases they find.
Ras man! Can’t an airplane fly in any direction? What’s the fixation with Miami and Dallas? Why not fly to Hartford? You think their airport is busy?
Your logic is spot on. Unfortunately, only the percentage of persons who will die from Covid in Cayman will understand what you’ve written.
Here we go.
Re opening borders is absolute madness, have you seen USA ?
Get ready to embrace it it’s coming soon to a theatre near you.
How confusing do you have to make it 🙄 . Take a covid test ahead of the flight bring the negative results with you. The residents, home owners returning on the island can just go to there homes and isolate and wear the bio-sticker. It’s too complicated.
“The minister said that the government was not going to take any risks, given the success, Cayman has had in tackling the virus” – “avoid the 14-day mandated quarantine by first taking a test 72 hours before departing the country where they are and have a negative result.” (So basically some people can walk right in?)
“It measures temperature, pulse, and breathing and issues an alarm if any of the levels spike.” – (80% of cases are asymptomatic….am I missing something?)
Taking the test 72 hours before departing makes absolutely no sense at all. At least have a rapid test like Frankfurt so you can do it right at the airport and board immediately after…again am I missing something?
Obviously Caymanians and UK residents should take priority — but the UK has 291,154 cases with a death toll that has increased to 45,233 after a further 114 more deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours – the rise is more than double the 48 additional deaths which came last week. Since you mentioned BA flights, does this qualify as a “low-risk country”? If that’s the case, will they be considering the US which also has skyrocketing cases?
I think the wristbands are a great idea, and we need to open our borders to a limited degree. But as they said, it needs some ironing out. I think Cayman has done great so far, don’t rest on your laurels.
So travel time is effectively acting as a online visa application. What would be the point of cbc officials for passport checks if person is already electronically approved to come. Might as well just preclear and go straight into luggage checks to avoid redundancy.
Right. That is a whole load of gobbledygook garbage. So I have a flight booked back to the UK after the September 1st. On my return, do I have to have provided a negative test 72 hours before I board the plane and then self-isolate for 5 days in my house before I can enter society again? So unclear and misleading that it isn’t worth the HTML it’s printed on! Instead of trumpeting ‘We’re opening the borders’, why not wait until you actually have concrete plans in place. Jesus H Christ, I need off this rock!
Leave.
@ 11.18 I want to stay thank you. And contribute to the economy. Go shopping, visit bars and restaurants, spend my KYD here and keep people in employment. I don’t want to have to jump through poorly thought out and totally pointless hoops to do it though. Crawl back under your conch shell chummy boy.
Just looked up flights/hotel prices for Cayman. Already the prices are up from last year by Almost 75%. ( to make up for the loss for the past few months unlike other islands who are offering welcome back deals) Next you add a couple hundred dollars for the bio-tracker. Self-quarantine for 5 days after paying all that money. Don’t forget the pre-COVID test…and how much for the COVID test at the five day mark? Wearing a tracker for your entire holiday. Wow!
Don’t come then! Simple, we are good without you.
Caymankind….
What businesses on this island don’t seem to understand is that if thet raise prices they sell less and then they raise prices again because they aren’t making money. Every menu I have looked at recently has increased prices so we will no longer be eating out (or ordering in as the case may be) once every two weeks, it will now be once a month, whereas if prices were lowered we might go out/order in once a week. Lower prices lead to more sales which ultimately leads to more profit for the company albeit in smaller increments than a few big overpriced sales but everybody wins in the end, the consumer doesn’t feel ripped off and the company survives and then possibly thrives.
Perfectly said 1:20 pm. Thumbs up over and over!!
We all lost money during the Covid lockdown, but trying to screw us now by is just going to make us feel ripped off.
Offering incentives gets the business in. Goodwill goes along way and word of mouth of the goodwill also goes far especially in the day of social media.
Couldn’t agree more. For me it will be sandals resorts across the Caribbean for the foreseeable future: safe, welcoming and better value without all the hassle and additional cost which is being proposed.
Lol
Total madness. No mechanism to prevent people interacting with others. A near certain opportunity to reintroduce the virus if are indeed rid of it. Then comes lockdowns, school closures, and true widespread economic devastation – leaving aside the health issues – and all because people do not want to have to quarantine? This is bullshit!
You do realize the device tracks a person who is actually in quarantine?
Geotracking in your hotel room is not quarantine. There is no proposed security mechanism to actually keep people apart from others.
Are you trying to say persons are free to leave their hotel rooms? That between the masks and tracking people won’t know there is a global pandemic and certain rules are to be respected?
And what if everyone does not respect the rules?
Why have people quarantine for 14 days when you can use testing and reduce that time.
You talk the BS.
I-N-C-U-B-A-T-I-O-N