Latest COVID-19 tests all negative

(CNS): Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee Confirmed that 321 COVID-19 tests carried out over the last day were all negative, following the disappointing news Monday that a lingering asymptomatic case had been picked up in the community, breaking Cayman’s more than two month run without any community transmission. There are still four active cases of the virus, with three in travellers who are quarantined and asymptomatic. There have been no reports that the 29 individuals selected to test run the geofencing technology and isolate at home breached the rules around their self-quarantine or reported being ill.

Meanwhile, the United States has reached the grim milestone of over 200,000 deaths due to COVID-19, which is now the second-leading cause of death in the US after heart disease, according to the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).

The US has recorded over seven million cases, with 2.5 million active cases, and daily infections over the last week have ranged from a high of more than 47,000 to a low of 33,000 new cases. Florida remains the state with the highest number of active cases at almost 447,000.

Over in the UK new restrictions have been imposed in an effort to prevent the rising spread ahead of what is expected to be a second and even more worrying second phase as the weather cools down and Brits head back indoors. On Wednesday, when Britain recorded almost 5,000 new cases, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking in the House of Commons, said that the country had reached “a perilous turning point”, as he outlined new restrictions that could last well into 2021.