Next vaccines not due until end of month
(CNS): Demand by residents in the Cayman Islands for the COVID-19 vaccine appears to have exceeded expectations and the 4,875 courses of the Pfizer vaccine that arrived in Cayman last week will have been administered and allocated by the beginning of next week unless there is a marked slowdown in demand. Officials have indicated that the next batch is not expected until 28 January as there are no shots coming on the British Airways flight due Thursday.
As of Tuesday evening, 3,119 people have had their first shot, which means that Cayman has used up more than 60% of the stock received in less than a week. Public health officials have confirmed that a decision had been made to retain the second doses for those who have already received the first shot and not wait for the next batch of vaccines.
While there may be enough vaccines for those in Group A of the first tier of Cayman’s National Vaccination Plan, those in group B may have to wait for more than a week for the next batch before they can be vaccinated.
Officials have not yet said if the next batch of vaccines from the UK will be the Pfizer vaccine, which is now ramping up production, or Britain’s home-grown Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Meanwhile, the latest batch of 182 COVID-19 test results were all negative, as reported Tuesday. However, following a surge in positive cases among travellers arriving with the virus over the last month, there are still 35 active cases of the virus among the estimated 1,200 people currently in isolation or quarantine. Four of those people continue to suffer symptoms of COVID-19.
Cayman has now recorded 362 cases of the virus since testing began back in March last year and has carried out more than 62,600 tests.
From next week all arriving passengers will require a negative test result no more than three days old. They will continue to be tested on arrival as well, as the government moves to try to reduce the importation of the more infectious strains of the virus circulating in both the UK and the US, where most of those coming into Cayman have passed through.
Category: Health, Medical Health
In Germany, 10 people have died after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. Those who died were from 79 to 93 years old, they had serious previous illnesses – they received the vaccine, since they were at risk for COVID-19. The interval between vaccinations and death ranged from several hours to four days. Also, the Paul Erich Institute received information that six people had an anaphylactic reaction to the procedure.
In total, 325 cases of side effects are known so far, presumably associated with the vaccine, of which 51 are severe. This corresponds to a proportion of 0.53 cases of side effects and 0.08 cases of severe side effects per 1000 vaccinations. According to Keller-Stanislavsky, these data are in line with expectations and do not indicate risks, and also coincide with statistics on vaccinations in the United States.
It is despicable that people who are not in the designated priority categories are just turning up anyway and being vaccinated. I guess we all now know that when the next batch comes in, just turn up no matter who you are – I hope HSA is ready for the stampede because there will surely not be enough to go round for a while yet.
Completely agree.
Despicable yet but surprising. Two factors at play here. The plan for rollout was not planned out thoroughly AND the constant fear-mongering about Covid led people in non-high-risk groups to feel a sense of urgency for vaccine.
We had LOTS of notice of arrival date for vaccines so there should have been a sign-up process weeks before the shots even started. That way, eligibility could have been confirmed and enforced! It would also balance demand across days to use the doses efficiently.
Borders are closed. No evidence of cases in the community. No need for the mad rush by younger folks. Calm the hell down and wait your turn! Let’s get our elderly and infirm family/friends protected.
23 people have died in Norway after receiving the vaccine from the American company Pfizer and the German startup BioNTech, the Norwegian Medicines Agency reported.
All deaths were recorded among elderly people over 80 years of age with weakened immunity.
“These cases are not particularly alarming. It is clear that this vaccine has a very small risk factor, with a few exceptions when it comes to elderly patients with poor health,” – quoted the NRK TV company as the words of agency spokesman Steinar Madsen.
The German Paul Erich Institute is checking the deaths of ten people after being vaccinated with the Pfizer / BioNTech coronavirus drug, said Brigitte Keller-Stanislavsky, head of its drug and drug safety department.
According to her, experts proceed from the fact that there is no connection between incidents and vaccination.
We are talking about very serious patients with numerous diseases who were undergoing palliative care. Based on the data available today, we proceed from the assumption that they died from major diseases with a temporary coincidence with vaccination, “she said.
Question: why terminally ill are being vaccinated?
Six cases of serious adverse reactions have been identified in France following the introduction of the coronavirus vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech, the National Medicines Safety Agency reported.
According to the ministry, in four cases there were allergic reactions, in two – tachycardia. The agency was reportedly also informed of the death of a person receiving the vaccine in a nursing home. According to the department, the death of a person occurred two hours after vaccination, but no signs of allergy after vaccination were found in him. For this reason, and given the person’s medical history, the relationship between his death and the vaccine has not been established.
In addition to these cases, about 30 people had mild adverse reactions. The agency says it will publish the first full report of all cases next week, after which such a report will be published weekly.
I am all for prioritising certain categories of people irrespective of their age such as medical staff and truly essential workers. This is not necessarily because they are at increased risk of dying from Covid but because you don’t even want them off work sick. Of course, people will argue over which categories of people are truly essential. However, the fact remains that in terms of people being at risk of dying from Covid, the risk increases significantly with age. I therefore cannot see any sense in CIG’s vaccination timetable putting “anyone who lives with persons vaccinated in Stage one” (which would include the healthy 16 year old children of anyone in the rather broad “essential” categories) ahead of 59 year old people who are at the back of the queue.
I also don’t understand the logic behind this. I thought the concern was that people who have been vaccinated could possibly still carry the virus. This is why their border opening plan includes multiple tests and why vaccinated visitors will not be allowed to stay with non-vaccinated residents. So doesn’t it make sense to vaccinate people based on age so that they are safer rather than the spouses and older children from that very very broad first phase? I mean I understand it’s convenient for them in terms of travel and hosting visitors but why leave older people at risk?
The HSA has been vaccinating people visiting Cayman. I know of at least 6 people who have been vaccinated and are just visitors. All this while Caymanians and residents are standing by to wait their turn and now people locally won’t be able to have the vaccine because it’s gone. How is this a successful distribution of the vaccine of the people of our islands? This is a successful distribution of the vaccine to travelers. Shouldn’t Caymanians and Residents receive priority? And if the goal is to have 70% of the Cayman population vaccinated how would the government even know as they are giving it to people that will be leaving soon. Aren’t they checking ID? How are they keeping track of this? It’s a disrespect to the those that have given up so much to keep these islands safe.
This is rampant and despicable. The consent form doesn’t ask if they are residents or not. HSA should be ashamed of themselves for NOT enforcing the rules. Visitors and young healthy people are getting the vaccine simply by turning up – no questions asked, while people like me who are group 1(b) with a “health status” are waiting patiently. Shameful
In the press conference last week, Alden said that long term visitors could be vaccinated. He said the point is to have the people that are out and about in the community to be vaccinated people.
No worries we have Daggaro they are going to save us with the new base on the Brac? Erryting kriss! ain’t that right Mr Govern a?
So let me get this straight. The HSA is going to sit on 5,000 doses of vaccine for three weeks while the medical staff sit around twiddling their thumbs rather than giving 5,000 more people the first dose and giving all 10,000 the second dose from the next shipment?
Uhhh, why?
How many comments you posted here? Because if different people post questions like yours or similar, the future of the Cayman Islands is dismal.
Possibly because there is no guarantee as to which vaccine will be in the next shipment. Current guidelines are not to mix and match, so if we administered all of the Pfizer vaccine currently in stock now as first doses, and the next shipment turned out to be AstraZeneca, that would pose something of a difficulty.
That is exactly it. We have no real control as to whether future shipments will be Pfizer or AstraZeneca, as well as the timing of receipt. It would be a logistically nightmare to ensure future matching of the second doses.
Within the UK right now they are maximizing the use of the first dose and delaying second dose (ie, getting the partial protection of first dose to as many people as possible). But that is because they are in the middle of a raging epidemic with significant community spread so this is an emergency measure. We dont currently have that issue in Cayman.
Why? It’s pretty obvious why. Dose #2 MUST be administered 21 days after the first dose. There is NO guarantee on the next shipment. If it isn’t available on the dates needed, all those first doses were in vain. The only responsible thing to do is to hold those doses as second doses for people that got their first dose.
No the second dose can’t be given less than 21 days after the first but it can be given MORE than the 21 days.
From
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/clinical-considerations.html
“Persons should not be scheduled to receive the second dose earlier than recommended (i.e., 3 weeks [Pfizer-BioNTech] or 1 month [Moderna]). However, second doses administered within a grace period of 4 days earlier than the recommended date for the second dose are still considered valid. Doses inadvertently administered earlier than the grace period do not need to be repeated. There is no maximum interval between the first and second doses for either vaccine. Therefore, if the second dose is administered >3 weeks after the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose or >1 month after the first Moderna vaccine dose, there is no need to restart the series. Vaccine administration errors should be reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).”
Yawn, there’s no rush, we have until March.
I know of six people who just turned up and got the vaccine.
They were told we have been told to vaccine anyone who turns up.
I also know of two foreign travelers here for a month both under 30 who also got the vaccine.
As a front line worker waiting until next week this is a disgrace.
But no more than I expected total farce on the part of CIG
You seem to know what you should not know. Have nothing else to do? I recommend you MYOB.
8:45 really? If people didn’t speak up how do you expect this problem to be solved?
I know of a few who know someone at the hospital and they rocked up and got it too. I’m furious as I would like to get it but I’m in my 30s so how long will that be??
This is how uncontrolled the vaccine distribution has been: The Jan 8, 2021 Cayman Compass featured some people who received the vaccine. One was an 18-20 year old young man who worked part time as a scheduler at a wellness/pilates/physio studio at Camana Bay. Not exactly what is intended to be “front line medical staff”.
What is even more galling is this same young man WON the 2020 Cayman Islands half-marathon race by almost seven minutes.
So….an 18 to 20 year old with probably the STRONGEST, most healthy cardiovascular and respiratory system in the Cayman Islands leap frogs to the front of the line, getting the first 1% of the vaccine on the first day.
Hopefully those serving as gatekeepers can use better discretion in future vaccine availabilities.
This angers me so much. Hubby and I sat at home patiently waiting our turn even though we are desperate to get vaccinated. I was locked down in Europe for several months unable to escape the infection raging all around us, and have extreme anxiety about getting infected. Yet we sat at home expecting it to be many months until we get our vaccine, despite being in our mid-50’s. Now we hear we could have just turned up and got it anyway? What nonsense is this. So if all these young and healthy people got vaccinated, that means that older and vulnerable people who should have been, were not. Jesus Cayman, can the government not bloody organise anything properly?
Remain terrified, question nothing, stay home.
Were you refused vaccination? GET A LIFE, please!
Im sure this person wasn’t refused because they didn’t turn up since they believed that the vaccines were being used to vaccinate those most at risk of severe complications before the border opens. Those that jumped the line should be ashamed of themselves.
Ashamed of themselves? They are heroes , they voluntarily participate in human trials by allowing to inject their bodies with solution that may protect from COVID.
8:47 what a dumb comment. The problem is precisely that – people turning up and NOT being refused because HSA isn’t confirming priority group criteria. Ever think that most of us are patiently waiting their turns? How would more people jumping the queue possibly help the situation?
I don’t think anyone has a problem with actual frontline medical staff and the elderly being vaccinated first but to see such abuse of the system is disgusting. Why is Cayman having such an issue with this? I’ve not heard about a similar situation occurring in any other country. The government’s silence on this issue is disheartening. I am sure that when the UK sent these vaccines from their limited supply during this difficult time there, they believed that we would use them to vaccinate our most vulnerable and not a young scheduler at a wellness studio and others not at risk. It would be nice to know if this problem has been rectified.
Why is it that the Government or HSA is not following their own guidelines. I have at least 4 friends who have gotten the vaccine outside of the current guidelines and have been encouraging me to just go and get because no one questions you.
Why is this continuing to happen? Why not just open it up as a first come, first serve? At his rate, i will never get mine and it is not fair.
CNS..Please ask why this is continuing to happen, please?
Cdc has stated if you get one shot of Pfizer or whichever one u need to get the same brand. they r different. uk is playing games and cayman accepting it
They are giving us more vaccines per head than they have for themselves whilst they desperately fight a raging epidemic. Playing games? Be quiet fool.
How’s the border going to open in March? Just the same way it was going to open in August- no September- no November- no January…………
While the rest of the Caribbean has been open since July.
Well, unless you are personally brave enough to greet every single passenger on reopening day, please silence your “old man backside” mouth with your money grubbing attitude (which is on full display in your short-sighted commentary above).
…Or just depart. Selfish, greed demons of your kind were never welcome in the Cayman Islands, you forced your way in. Do us all a favor, please.
I know someone, who knows someone who allegedly got something when he shouldn’t have…
Sounds like an obsession…
I am an essential worker and Civil Servant, I am also in a high risk health banding. Therefore I come under B for pre-existing health reasons that may prove dangerous if infected with COVID-19, and I come under C for essential workers.
However, I have been informed of at least three people today who did not conform to this requirement and who should be waiting their turn.
I am yet to get the chance to take the vaccine and will not queue jump, regardless of my position and health status so please keep your disgusting comments to yourself.
The vaccine is experimental. Do you understand what that means? Once injected it can’t be deactivated. May be it is your blessing that you didn’t get it? By the way, there’s no community spreading in Cayman.
It actually isn’t an “experiment” as that would be implying the outcome is unknown, when in fact, the mRNA technology is proven and understood.
I’m sorry, but I am flabbergasted who are the people who post such comments? Are they 95 years old or 12? Can they read, know how to do basic research and have basic reading comprehension? I have put exclamation marks to the points you either missed or don’t understand what it means.
“The FDA has determined that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has met the statutory criteria for issuance of an EUA [emergency use authorization ❗️]. The totality of the available data provides clear evidence that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine may be [❗️] effective in preventing COVID-19.
While not [❗️] an FDA approval, today’s emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine holds the promise [❗️❗️]……”
(from FDA NEWS RELEASE December 11, 2020)
It is not experimental, that has been passed some time ago
You’re really going to have to try hard to catch it here though. Waiting a week is neither here nor there surely. Let’s face it the UK is giving us more vaccine per capita than they have for themselves and they need it far more than we do. Soon come.
Who said the guns were pointing directly at you?
Civil Servants are the furthest thing from “essential”
I’ll remember that when your house is flooded out in the next hurricane. This one is ungrateful, bad.
Didn’t need your assistance during Ivan, won’t need it next time.
5:51 except the civil servant part I’m in the same category as you and so disappointed that this is going on. HSA needs to shape up before the next batch arrives to ensure the next rollout follows strictly enforced rules
6.35am They’ll only shape up same time as the RCIPS when we stop hiring most staff from one corrupt country.
What efforts have been made to see if we can get more vaccine directly from the manufacturers? Cayman did brilliantly a year ago in securing PCR testing technology. Can we do it again with vaccines?
Lol. You don’t think every single vial that rolls off the line is spoken for? The UK bought nearly 400m doses 6 months ago! 400 million!
Political friends and the rich foreign nationals come first ain’t that right Roper Remember what Alden said, they are here for us! Dats How we roll!
I think we have all been hoping that we get enough vaccines here for our small population in relatively short order that it will not matter who ‘jumps the queue’ now. If we are reopening in March, that better be the case, because the majority of the population here is not going to risk its health for tourists. God if we become swarmed with sick Americans and most of us aren’t vaccinated because the UK was stingy or CIG dropped the ball we won’t be able to leave our homes. People will be refusing to report to work on grounds that their employer cannot force them to endanger their health. That can’t happen. UK – get those vaccines down here now. You screwed up with your own population, don’t force us to do the same.
I wouldn’t worry about The Americans as they will have to be negative covid and have their vaccines to travel to Cayman. I would worry about the community who hasn’t yet been tested or had the vaccine.
Wow. Entitled much? The UK has already given us more vaccine per capita than they have for themselves!
Where did Alden get the idea that he and his cohorts had to get the vaccine first “in order to convince the public it was safe”?.
We all watch the Miami news channels and can see this is not an issue in the States and elsewhere, where people are desperate to get vaccinated.
Alden needs to get his act together and work out where we are going to get another 90,000 doses in order to satisfy local demand.
Actually, many US politicians received their vaccine with press coverage in hopes of convincing population it’s safe. Many, many, many persons are NOT desperate to be vaccinated. Lots are actually not interested in receiving this vaccine.
So people will have to wait a little while, big deal zzzzzzzzz
Why did CIG not do a poll to gauge demand? Guess that might have been too much thinking outside the box for CIG.
They got what the UK gave them. Same amount that the Turks got.
Well why was that? We have 20,000-25,000 more people.
For the critics out there on why we dont have more vaccine coming immediately, the plan is to take all we can get from the UK. A record 1,500 plus people died of Covid in the UK in the last 24 hours (one a minute), so the situation in the UK is much more desperate and immediate.
The 4,800 vaccinations in Cayman will mean about 8% of Cayman will have received the shot. This rate exceeds the current rate in the UK so they are pacing the distribution of this precious resource.
We (currently) have no community spread and no lockdown measures or masks. I wouldnt expect the UK government would accelerate our percentage vaccination timeline more than in the UK.
Indeed! For every Cayman resident taking a vaccine so they can *travel*, a vulnerable Brit runs the risk of death.
What about the covid positive 19 year old out in the clubs and in the gym? Just because people are asymptomatic does not mean covid is not out in the community.
That was 2 months ago, if it was ‘out there’ it would be rampant by now.
Asymptotic- no symptoms
The real question is why isn’t he in jail?
Can CIG publish who has been vaccinated? I know of many line jumpers who had the vaccine this week with no apparent qualification based on criteria.
Have you heard of patient confidentiality?
I can give you three right off the bat. Alden, Jon Jon and Dr Lee.
lol only if we can publish your STI history as well.
If they ever did (we know they won’t), you’ll see the names of visitors, children of self-serving aspiring politicians, Chief Officers, Lodge family members, etc.
Actual criteria for vaccination Stage 1:
A living breathing human being
Mobile (two working legs, crutches or wheelchair)
A weak argument that you’re in a high risk group
Age, occupation, citizenship, nationality, birthplace does not matter, it’s a free for all!
They won’t release that information, but I wondered the same thing. I can only assume Public Health was excited about so many willing people to take the vaccine they just ran with it before they expired.
It would be useful to know how many doses are due in on that flight. It stands to reason that the initial demand will be the greatest at the start of this process vs later on when demand will taper off…
They should be utilizing an appointment system to ensure they know demand on a given day. They don’t need to make it for a specific time but have folks within the eligible group sign up for a certain date. At the end of the day before these appointments, if all the slots are not filled, a PSA goes out that there will be first come, first serve at the end of following day. We have to ensure no vaccines go to waste.
Except they are literally being wasted on our corrupt politicians.
why was there no plan to bring more vaccines on every ba flight…at least once per week???.
Because the UK has a greater need of the vaccine than Cayman!
Because BA comes in every fortnight!
another fine mess by cig…what happened to their 3,000 vaccines per week plan?
so cayman islands vaccination plan will be put on hold due to cig incompetence and short sightedness?
Nothing to do with CIG. CIG will take all they can get. All up to the UK to decide how much we get and when.
11:31am: Are you aware of the high demand and low supply…..across the world?!?
one word= israel.
Stage 1C is where “Workers essential to Government
continuity” is where the free-for-all, line jumpers is going to happen. Everyone one in the civil service, young and old, are going to try to jump the line with this undefined group.
Good luck to everyone in Group B and Group C. Group B’s bottleneck, line jumpers will be “essential workers”, which everyone else is going to try to get into.
Group C is everyone else, starting with those over 50 years (Im early 50s). So could be waiting awhile, hoping by summer so I have some travel freedom.
This is ridiculous. If they are not going to require proof (age, medical or employment documentation), then they should just open it up to everyone after the elderly have been vaccinated. It shouldn’t even be that hard to require proof anyway – we needed ID just to grocery shop during lockdown and that worked. Why are people in their 20s being vaccinated just so they can travel freely before people in their fifties or sixties that have a higher risk of complications? The other group B bottleneck and line jumpers is going to be all the household members from anyone vaccinated in group A. I would not plan on travelling freely this summer – you’ll be lucky to go next year.
Actually, no. The CIG has a list of those 1C-Essential staff. 99% of CIG staff are not on that list. So anyone line-jumping on that list is an obvious, traceable, breakdown in the system.