UK’s COVID-19 cases rise ahead of isolation trial
(CNS): On the eve of a trial run for new COVID-19 isolation protocols with selected passengers arriving on a British Airways flight from London, the UK saw its highest number of cases in one day since May. While the Cayman Islands had 140 negative COVID-19 tests on Wednesday, there were almost 4,000 new cases in the last 24 hours in the UK and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has admitted that the country has a testing problem.
The Cayman government is allowing around two dozen people arriving from the UK tomorrow to self-isolate at home or in designated accommodation using a geofencing device rather than being locked down in a quarantine facility.
This is a test run ahead of the plan for a soft border reopening on 1 October, which government hopes will enable property owners and other wealthy visitors who want to come to to come to Cayman for several months to self-quarantine for two weeks in their own homes or at designated hotels and condos rather than in government-designated facilities.
Most of these guest will, however, be coming from the UK via the new fortnightly BA service or from North America on a Cayman Airways flight through Miami or on a private jet. The UK and the US currently top the COVID-19 numbers charts in one way or another, and neither country has the virus under control.
On Wednesday, Johnson said that, given the number of people admitted to hospital in England and the coronavirus reaching the highest level since the start of July, the death rate there was likely to start rising in the coming weeks.
Appearing before the Commons Liaison Committee, Johnson conceded that there was currently not enough testing capacity and that “many people are deeply frustrated”. He also warned that the much-touted plan for a return to more normality through the mass use of new, near-instant tests was “a long way off”.
Meanwhile, here in the Cayman Islands there have been no cases of community transmission since 11 July. There are just three active cases in travellers who are asymptomatic. They were in government quarantine with 230 other people but they are expected to be given the all clear shortly.
Cayman has now carried out 37,292 tests, making it one of the top per capita testing countries in the world.
Category: Health, Medical Health
Run for your lives, the ‘rona is coming!
This is so much more complicated than it should be.
Hawaii in the news today. Take a test within 72 hrs of arrival. and no quarantine. Sounds reasonable. They realize their local economy cannot survive in “the bubble”. They’ll capture a good part of Caymans potential business.
Haha. The Pacific islands won’t be taking much, if any tourism from the Caribbean anytime soon, that’s for sure. Good try with your strawman comments, but I’m here to keep the likes of you grounded.
You completely missed the point. Using Hawaii as an example of how to let people in is no different to using New Zealand as an example of keeping people out. It’s systems, not geography!
No, you completely missed the point. Writing “They’ll capture a good part of Caymans potential business” is just wrong. Cayman’s main tourism target market is mostly the East Coast, Midwest, Texas and Florida. Those people are not going to flock to Hawaii in droves. They might go to another Caribbean island other than Cayman, but Hawaii’s target market is the western parts of the U.S. and Canada. If anything, fewer people from the east will go to Hawaii because flights are being cut back and going that far west is not going to be as easy as it used to be – at least for a while.
Bermuda and Turks are taking all our people as they have a plan! I guess you have a government job then!
Turks has an 8 pm curfew and their schools are still closed because of a spike in cases. So ya a plan but how long is that viable? And the four covid tests (1 before arrival and 3 during the first two weeks) required by Bermuda is going to deter a lot of people anyway.
Not true, Bermuda had 63% occupancy 2 weeks ago and people are traveling and safely, They are a level 2 on CDC travel.
Turks and Caicos has a 8pm BECAUSE the locals where the ones spreading it at parties and not doing the right thing it was spreading LONG before the reopened to tourists! Again first week open 45% occupancy! I was there watched to all happen!
So both places have a plan but yet we have a joke!
I’d say that is pretty good occupancy rates for the month of September.
“Level 2 CDC travel”.
Keep on with that Kool-Aid. lol.
Not deterring many here to Bermuda. My twelve friends just booked a trip to Bermuda and I would’ve been one of them, but I am back to work and unable to travel the week they are going. They are not worried about the required testing as they just didn’t want to travel to a place where they had to quarantine.
This pretty much sums up why we need to continue to control the border opening. I will be more than willing to concede if the situation in Bermuda remains the same a month from now.
Bermuda has been open since July and Covid isn’t raging there because of tourists coming.
Bermuda has been doing this since July.
It’s a proven system.
Turks seems to be doing fine and the requirements for entry are reasonable. Heck, the 8 pm curfew is fine with me!
True but not until at least 15 Oct. It has also been delayed twice before because of a surge in cases both in Hawaii and the rest of the US. Hawaii is currently seeing a surge in cases that has led to numerous restrictions, including the closing of many beaches. I wouldn’t start worrying about losing business to them just yet. They are still trying to figure it out like we are.
It’s ok our people are all going to Bermuda, Turks and all the other places in the Caribbean that HAVE a plan!
Hello! Bermuda isn’t in the Caribbean.
Still has tourist we have NOTHING
After two hurricanes it won’t.
Bermuda beaches are beautiful. The weather is nice. One can RRR in Bermuda 🇧🇲, while in Cayman it is all about stress, being tracked, draconian law threatens imprisonments. One is treated as a criminal in Cayman as if he/she intentionally spreads STD, Cholera etc.
Cayman Human Rights commission is hibernating. Cayman measures are not necessary and not proportional to the threat. Any judge would arrive to such conclusions in minutes.
Start filing complaints with HRC and Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
COVID-19 not an excuse for unlawful deprivation of liberty – UN expert group on arbitrary detention. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25876&LangID=E
IV. Necessity and proportionality of the deprivation of liberty
10. “Any law authorizing the deprivation of liberty must therefore be scrutinized. Any deprivation of liberty, even if [❗️] it is authorized by law, may still be considered arbitrary [❗️] if it is premised upon arbitrary legislation or is inherently unjust, relying for instance on discriminatory grounds, or if there is an overly broad statute authorizing automatic and indefinite deprivation of liberty without any standards or review, or the law does not specify clearly the nature of the conduct that is unlawful.
11. Moreover, even the lawful deprivation of liberty may still be arbitrary if such detention is not [❗️] strictly necessary [❗️] or a proportionate [❗️] measure in pursuance of a legitimate aim.In particular, States must be mindful that detention that initially [❗️] satisfied the requirements of necessity and proportionality may no longer be justified [❗️] insofar as the circumstances may have changed significantly.
Lab capacity and turn around times are already impaired in England with less than a third of results available within 24hrs. If you are thinking about traveling, this is the return-leg bottleneck.
Why that matter no pre test needed anyway!
The problem in the UK is two-fold –
1. They contracted out the testing programme to dodgy private contractors who can’t delivery the goods.
2. People are demanding tests even they’re not sick.
It’s a fiasco.
Hmmm, I wonder where all our cases have come from?
China.
Florida.
Jamaica, Miami, US?
I appreciate many here argue the U.K. is our motherland. Some are very proud to say that’s where we get our covid-19 medical guidance. The irony. But our Premier claims to put the health of Caymanians first. Right now, the two are conflicting. I’m unaware of a mother who would put her children at risk. Apologies, I do know of one. The English have historically put colonials on the front lines. Remember what Australia was originally used for? To clean up England. For God’s sake Alden and Governor. If you are going to bring people in from England at least have them test there first. England is worse per capita than the US. 8th and 9th. Canada 26 and Jamaica 101. The priority should be to protect all persons living here. Test the bejesus out of people who wish to come here, prior to quarantine. Even if it is at the airport here.
Oh grow up child!!
The UK has a population of 66-70 million, with the majority of new cases coming from the Midlands and North East. A couple of reasons for this.
1 Snowflake students and their self entitled lifestyles.
2. High numbers of Asian families living in very close proximity to each other.
Many of these new cases are asymptomatic, others with underlying medical issues or by the perils of age.
Just calm down, stupid scare mongering doesn’t help as the numbers are small in comparison, and in any case, that’s why we have a quarantine policy.
Still looking down on natives.
Yes, when they act stupid. Which of late seems to be turning into an art form.
When you stop acting like children, then you’ll stop being treated like children. Simple!!
Well, we know what kind of slave owner you would have been.
Oh, another victim of white privilege I presume. Get a life race baiter, I’m a black man married to a beautiful white princess.
Your response only strengthens my argument that your mentality is childish. Your colour is your problem, not mine.
Well said, Bro’.
From a white man.
Glad someone else is keeping it honest and clean.
I’ll have a beer with you any day.
To bad they don’t pre test!
Fresh from Australian news:
‘Australians must know the truth – this virus is not a pandemic’: Alan Jones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=kGBEaYEtiys&feature=emb_logo&fbclid=IwAR122ub6WIVuISqgZIw3GA6xrdiphjU83Cbd-vW1H7Y1qC0r0hrLA0fh6j0
I hope to hear this on other news channels, but we keep sharing it with friends and they just discount and move on and tune into their fear based outlets.
Don’t discredit it before even watching.
But here’s the letter in the Australian Financial Review – you may be more open to this
“Why I quit rather than be silenced: Vic Treasury insider”
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/victoria-has-locked-itself-into-a-lockdown-blunder-20200916-p55w1z
You lost me at Alan Jones.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
Of course they rise. More people are being tested. How many are in ICUs and or dying?
I know! It’s just like the U.S. If they would only stop testing, the number of positive cases will go down to like zero. And these 1,000 people dying every day of COVID is ridiculous, too. These people are dying just to make the President look bad or else doctors are saying they are dying of COVID just to make the President look bad. People die every day, so there’s no reason to say they died of COVID unless you’re trying to steal the election from Trump.
9:54 am– Where’s the LOL button when we need it most! My word, you’re delusional! Having family in the US that work in hospitals, I can assure you, doctor’s aren’t listing COD as Covid unless that’s the only thing they died from. If someone had a heart condition, it would be listed as that and covid listed as a factor of it.
There are loads of us US Citizens that do NOT wish for Trump to win again, but we aren’t going to DIE just to make him look bad…. he makes himself look bad quite easily on his own!
(insert eye roll here)
Oh yes they are, and doctors are now openly coming out and saying it.
Trump hating is fogging the debate and Biden is a doddering old fool who has done nothing for 50 years in the Washington swamp.
If anyone truly believes that Harris/Biden will be the cure for the US, they are delusional.
I’m no Trump fan, but better the devil you know at this point in time, because the left will destroy that once great nation.
Mask mandates, lockdowns, ‘reimagining’ Police, higher taxes, anti-nuclear family and state control of everything. It’s called totalitarian rule, or slavery. Good luck getting to the truth then.
Sorry, was that tongue in cheek… I can’t tell with trump supporters anymore.
Yes it was. And I know exactly what you mean (and see proof by the likes and comments). Sad indeed.
The U.K. is the worst country per capita for covid in the English speaking world. Lets keep bringing them in Alden. Genius move.
Exactly – this will have very little effect on the economy and we are risking what we do have with another possible lockdown. Doesn’t seem like great timing.
Yeah., last time I checked it was those Americans from Texas and the Midwest with 5 kids wife and friends that were buying the SMB condos. The English, they come to work.
Maybe it’s because people with some sort of influence want to be able to easily go back to visit friends and family? Get ready to hear Dr Lee announce “another positive that is a contact of someone with a travel history” at daily press briefings again. Oh and get your mask out.
8.06am How many symptomatic positives have arrived on the BA flights?. How many Caymanian students have gone to the UK on these flights?.
Well we don’t really know because they do not test upon arrival, only after the 14 day quarantine. The vast majority of people would no longer be positive at that time even if they arrived with covid. Also asymptomatic people can spread covid so it doesn’t matter if they show symptoms.
I think you might like to check your sources of data, the UK is currently listed as 60th in the world for cases/million, the US is 11th. The UK is also testing more than the US (per million population), so with more testing you would expect more cases. The reality is there are hot spots of infection in all countries, some areas are relatively free of infection, some areas are high. In the UK you have 65 million who haven’t caught it, out of 65.4 million total population. The point I am making is yes, be cautious, but please keep your feet on the ground.
This is stupid is as stupid does – we will all be back in lockdown in a month.
That is the plan.
This tiny island can’t hide forever.
Just get on with the limited opening and home quarantine, if everyone is sensible there will be no problems
Do you really believe everyone will be sensible?
6:16 but people arent sensible. The first lockdown showed that pretty clearly.
I agree. The kind of people that partied on the beach after being told to only use it for exercise and social distance aren’t very likely to turn away visitors that stop by their house. They’ll probably enjoy trying to get away with something. Some people are selfish and don’t think the rules apply to them. It only takes one case.
Lest we think the irresponsible behavior is limited to certain nationalities, take a look at the university scene in the U.S. Those in their late teens and early 20s are unlikely to die or even get very sick, so they don’t give a crap about what their actions might cause to others.
I honestly fail to see how this comment has anything to do with nationality – they literally just said “people.” There is no reference to nationality at all.
STOP with the wealthy visitor junk! Wealthy people get Covid, too!
I wonder if the assumption is that wealthy can afford to take off work or work from home to avoid chance of infections?