Over 5,300 get first dose of COVID vaccine
(CNS): The COVID-19 vaccination plan continues apace with 5,339 people having received their first dose within two weeks of the Pfizer shots arriving here. Following government’s decision to use up all 9,750 doses of the vaccine that were delivered on 5 January for first shots and give the second from new supplies of up to 11,000 doses expected next week, Public Health has already opened up the invitation to all of those in the first stage.
Officials continue to urge everyone to take the vaccine when their demographic is invited to do so since, despite the significant take-up so far, there are still concerns that misinformation could undermine the stated goal of vaccinating 70% of the population or more than 40,000 adults by the end of March.
Cayman’s COVID-free bubble remains precarious, illustrated by the continued positive tests turning up in travellers who were tested within three days of boarding the plane here.
On Tuesday Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee reported another positive case of the virus among a batch of 444 results, the rest of which were negative. The latest case was in an asymptomatic traveller, who remains in isolation alongside another 1,302 people. Among those in quarantine and home isolation there are 45 active cases of the coronavirus and nine of those individuals now have symptoms.
Cayman has seen 43 cases of the virus already this year and has now recorded a total of 381 confirmed COVID-19 cases since testing began.
Category: Health, Medical Health
Thank you George Town Hospital for an efficient, smooth process this morning. Including the umbrellas!
Pfizer now says its vaccine, produced with BioNTech, is around 52% effective after the first dose, and increases to about 95% a number of days after the second dose.
Maybe holding back doses for the second jab isn’t such a bad idea after all?
Those were the known stats for a while! Holding back for 2nd dose was the smart plan!! CIG better hope they have 2nd round doses available on the 21st day. God forbid, the UK withhold for their own use or if BA doesn’t come….all those 5,000ish 1st round doses will have been wasted.
This was always the case, however the 52% figure is only the level of protection after 3 weeks. Regardless of whether the 2nd dose is administered at this point, the protection from the first dose continues to rise, which is where the figure of 89 – 90% comes from. It’s been estimated that the 2nd dose only confers an extra 5% protection.
Are we in stage 1 or stage 1 & 2 now?
Just stage 1.the next shipment will be used for the second booster for all that have now received the first dose. Gonna be a while before stage 2 starts.
If you are getting vaccines proportionate to the number being distributed in the UK there is no way 70% of Caymanians will be vaccinated by March! The UK is looking at about 25% vaccinated by March – as long as there is no supply disruption.
Visitors should not be getting vaccines ahead of Caymanians.
what if said visitor is a nurse?
Why is a nurse visiting? Why have priority over locals?
Why would a nurse be here visiting, and why would that nurse not get the vaccine in the country where they reside? Healthcare workers are first in every country. Why would a nurse wait to get a vaccine while on a vacation visit to the Cayman Islands?
Why? Should be given in order of clinical need. Elderly visitors should take priority over younger healthy Caymanians and residents especially if you expect them to go home safely any time soon.
Sure a lot of complaining about free vaccine invented by others at great expense.
Incredible huh? You’d think it was developed and produced here.
Unfortunately, as the planet fumbles to record daily infections, Pfizer has decided to refit their production line in Puurs Belgium over the next several weeks in order to scale-up production to non-USA customers. There are already order fulfillment interruptions which have pushed back forecasts on reliable delivery and distribution to rest of the world. We should expect shortages, not gluts of doses, over the next 8 weeks, or more. We have to suppose a global contagion wasn’t important enough for Pfizer to refit a third facility they might have idling somewhere else. The Puurs plant is hoped to be back up and running by mid-Feb or March. Pfizer USA in Kalamazoo is only making doses for Americans.
how come the number of people with symptoms in isolation never seems to decline? Currently 45 persons. Are there people who have been in isolation for a very extended period of time (months) due to symptoms?
9 with symptoms not 45. As for why the number of people who are positive stays high despite the passage of time, that’s simple. We keep importing them! Almost every flight has positive tests. As soon as those people have gotten over it and are released they are replaced by more – if anything the numbers of positives in quarantine is increasing not decreasing.
Well 11:18 let me put another way so you and our dear leader Alden can get it if you Don’t do this properly and with all the issues around the vaccine rollout including now the first Pfizer jabs only being 52 % effective from the Israeli testing results and new strains mutating it could put your big dummy opening in March 2021 to a screeching halt, coupled with the fact that you can still spread with both shots . Quarantine and isolation are still the most effective way of dealing with the virus .Why don’t some of you jackboot promoters stay unnah could care less selfish Frigging @$$ home and stop spreading this shit around the world and wear unnah frigging mask ! it would appear our despicable leadership is prostituting our status now at the risk of our lives and the entire island’s economy!
CNS do you have link to the Article listing who is covered in phase 1?
CNS: It’s listed in the National Vaccination Plan brochure, which we have in the Library here.
I hope when this next batch comes that everyone can go and get theirs without this stipulation of categories and age. There are so many people that jumped the line selfishly to get their vaccine even some people that are just visiting. It is not fair to the rest of us that are ethical and wait our turn but then again that is how Caymanians have become pushovers and taken advantage by our own Government who should be standing up for us.
7:45pm – you are absolutely correct. But…no one from government has addressed this at all…as usual brushed under the rug…this should not have been allowed
Hush. If there are some visitors here that were given the vaccine they’re pretty much guaranteed to have a solid connection to here, either through family or property ownership. That number would also be a tiny percentage of the total vaccines given.
There’s no apparent community transmission, and with borders closed and quarantine impositions, as well as more vaccine supplies coming, there’s really no rush.
If a snowbird in their 70s has it before me, that’s fine.
As for the pushovers comment and being taken advantage of by the government, stop being melodramatic. The jackboot of oppression is felt by many around the world. Cayman isn’t one of those places.
400,000 dead alone in the US 6 times our little population yes we should be a little melodramatic our should we be calm like Narcissistic pricks like you? Who have run around like el presidente Stupid who is out of job this afternoon because he failed to take heed too! Oh please give it a rest and why don’t you and your Snowbird stay your ass home for once and stop infecting others.
Cayman Patriot, you’re not the fastest Honda Civic in the car park, are you?
You missed the point almost as much as politicians when it comes to condemning thuggish attacks on women.
I’m not sure where narcissism comes into it. I just don’t mind someone more in need of the vaccine than me receiving it ahead of me.
The melodrama is about you screaming about Caymanians being pushed around. You think the vast majority of queue jumpers aren’t actual Caymanians? Fool.
As for the comparison between USA deaths and our population, that’s just great stuff. I see a future for you as a talented statistician.
Staying my ass home…errr what? There’s no real suppression legislation to make that happen.
Have a fantastic day.
Is this chaotic, ill tempered, illiterate drivel how your brain normally works or are you drunk?
We might rethink that privilege when reconciling to the international news that the Pfizer vaccine supply is already temporarily stopped, and the production that were allocated earlier might be it for awhile – with life or death priority for the most vulnerable. We don’t know when or how the new variants will squeak into circulation our community bubble in Cayman. Looking around the world, so far, all we’ve been is lucky that it hasn’t yet.
Agreed. If an elderly visitor wants my jab they are welcome to it, I can wait. This sense of entitlement to “our” vaccine when we don’t even have any community transmission is an ugly look. We should be thankful we have any vaccines at all!
not really the govt’s fault that nurses and doctors administering vaccines are literally telling people when they show up that the group thing doesn’t matter just come in and get vaccinated. not really the nurses and doctors fault either when they hear amplified noise of a minority of morons saying things like…”im gonna wait a few months to see if you drop dead first or grow a second head before i take the vaccine.”
The next batch coming on 28 January will be the second booster shot for all of the people that have already received the first vaccine. They will basically all be spoken for, so this next batch will not be any new vaccines for anyone.
9.15am If the next batch fails to arrive (see ref to Pfizer stopping production), there will certainly be no vaccine for anyone, booster shot or first.