Vaccination site moves to airport this week
(CNS): All public vaccinations this week will take place at the offsite COVID-19 vaccine clinic located in the ticketing area of Owen Roberts International Airport (ORIA). There has been no explanation by public officials why the airport in George Town has became the main vaccination site, rather than a healthcare facility, for airport workers and all those in the current groups for whom the vaccine is currently available.
CNS has asked for an explanation and we are awaiting a response.
But in a press release confirming the change officials said those coming for the shot should park in long-term parking area. Those with mobility issues and the over 70s can be dropped off at the entrance and they can then join the priority line to expedite the vaccination process.
Individuals getting the second dose are reminded to bring along their vaccination card showing the first dose. Everyone must bring face-masks and photo ID.
Anyone with travel questions should contact the Travel Cayman team via email TravelCayman@gov.ky
or call 1-345-945-0556 / 1-345-946-7858
Phone lines are open Monday through Friday 8.30am to 5pm.See the consent form and the Vaccination Plan Brochure in the CNS Library here.
For more details on the vaccination programme and the current schedule visit the HSA website here. And for testing to accommodate new international requirements, see here.
For more information on COVID-19 in the Cayman Islands, visit the CIG site here.
Category: Health, Medical Health
I don’t understand if we have the vaccines why are we not making everyone have the opportunity to get it?
It is foolish for anyone to think that it is only the most vulnerable that are getting these shots. Every Tom, Dick and Harry including visitors and expats just arrived on island are getting it. I know this for a fact because where I work we just employed two new employees from the UK and they have already went and got theirs and here I am a Caymanian still waiting.
If the CMO is worried about hosting a pre-July super-spreader, either switch all our basic COVID courtesies back on for certain areas, or keep them off in acknowledgement of the recently expanded 1,500 max. Pick. Either we should be in full precautionary mode, or not. The half-measure of chin-masking without the 6ft social distance, or replenished alcohol hand-wash stations, just erodes public confidence in administrative competence.
Ideally, and that is not difficult to do in Cayman, deep freezer and a fridge where vaccines are being stored should be located in the same room (building) in order not to expose vaccines to tropical heat even for a few seconds. Vaccinations should be administered in the same building as well.
China has come up with a way to encourage compliance with public health measures – anal swabs for those who may have been exposed to the virus.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/27/china-starts-using-anal-swabs-test-covid-high-infection-areas
Maybe they can explain why or how this respiratory illness has anything to do with an anus , sorry I laughing while typing this . China has What ? over a Billion people , That is a lot of anuses , Still Laughing , oh my lord . Do they line everyone up against the great wall and yell drop your drawers an bend , using the army to advance holding their stick with cotton on it , Relax people we are coming in two inches and you done , Relatives are allowed to assist grandma bend at the wall , if she isnt already naturally Bent .
Clearly, this is a giant conspiracy.
I hope they get to the bottom of this.
China is getting to the bottom of it.
Good one! 🤣
I asked whether students and other locals who were here for a limited time could receive the vaccine upon arrival, at the airport, so that they could get dose#2 a week after isolation, and thus have some protection when they went back.
The arrivals staff who take the tests are suitably protected, why not give the jab as well take the test?
Hopefully this is being instituted, and this move to ORIA is not just a logistics manoevre.
Why should the least vulnerable groups get vaccines before others? University lectures are all online at the moment in any case. Breathtaking entitlement.
Some people have to work outside Cayman and have not seen their families in a year.
That must be very difficult. Things are also difficult for the families of the more than 1 million people who have died so far around the world. We all must make sacrifices to keep Cayman a covid-free zone.
Some of Caymans critical workers have also not seen their families for well over a year. The point is?
It’s not just students who need it, frontline and people who HAVE to travel should get it too, ASAP.
The point is to achieve herd immunity as fast as possinble. It’s the young ‘uns who are out partying during outbreaks that we need to vaccinate, so they don’t create superspreader events or bring the virus home to the rest of the family.
Look at the bigger picture, FFS.
Basic common sense. These are the groups that are at risk of spreading the virus. Try and think big picture for a minute – this is a GLOBAL pandemic, and the aim is to achieve herd immunity as fast as possible. Just because you are safe in Cayman doesn’t mean we shouldn’t offer the vaccine to people who absolutely must travel for work/study.
Wow. Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend the clueless and abhorrent privilege of Cayman’s Chardonnay-fog moms. This is a global EMERGENCY, and the limited Pfizer doses are scarce and reserved for those with medical priority. Your wanting to skip the line, and release privileged Little Johnny on tour, is not a Cayman Islands medical priority.
First of all……neither vaccine does the second jab after a week. Pfizer (what Cayman has done thus far) has a window of 21 days between doses and Moderna has 28 days. Facts.
Secondly, the whole world understands the logic behind vaccinating the old/ill first. Why do you think students/visitors should go ahead of them? Just no!
Third, if someone chooses to go off to school or travel they have chosen to accept the risk of possibly catching Covid. People in these categories are generally not high risk but if they are, they’d already be classified in a priority vaccine phase and it’s a moot issue.
By all means vaccinate the old and ill first, but why not simultaneously vaccinate frontline workers, some of who have been working elsewhere. The point is to achieve herd immunity!
Wherever they working the front line should vaccinate them.
And the vaccine will be kept viable at an AIRPORT?
no one will ever know, unless there is a log of vaccines movement from a freezer to fridge to dilution then into a person’s arm. Each step must have time stamp recorded: temperature, day/hr/min/sec
Ask for the log before getting the shot to make sure the solution in the vial is within 2 hr after the dilution.
This really is important. CNS, can you find out if the necessary freezer(s) will be at the airport as well?
This has been asked numerous times. Yet, no answers.
This could mean one thing only- no temperature controls and no logs. Otherwise they would be boasting about it.
Those who are going for the second shot should ask for the log. Please write back about your experience.
The UK has today announced a sensible policy of not allowing its residents to go abroad for shopping trips and holidays because they create risks and costs for the rest of the country when they return home. Cayman should do the same.
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-statement-to-the-house-of-commons-on-coronavirus-27-january-2021
This has been the law since the current lockdown began last November!
In the UK law enforcement is now questioning UK residents leaving the UK to determine if they have a valid reason for leaving. If not, they are sent home. That is what we are not doing.
Travel Time was supposed to be a “needs-based” travel vetting application process, involving human eyes, but has devolved into a perfunctory rubber stamp by the national carrier’s own internal staff. You buy the ticket online, and then use the travel locator code on the application. Approved!
Today the UK announced new measures to limit the spread of the virus – all sound reasonable to me. Maybe we should do the same – From the Guardian:
Firstly, the police have stepped up checks and are carrying out more physical checks at addresses to ensure that people are complying with the self-isolation rules.
Second, we will continue to refuse entry to non-UK residents from red-list countries which are already subject to the UK travel ban.
Third, as the prime minister has said, we will introduce a new managed isolation process in hotels for those who cannot be refused entry, including those arriving home from countries where we have already imposed international travel bans.
too bad the vaccine is useless against some of the new variants. Better just accept the fact that we will lose some loved ones to this horrible virus and get on with life.
Not true.
True
How is it a good idea to bring the most vulnerable to a location at which infected people are arriving in Cayman? Even if they are kept 6 feet apart they will share the same indoor air and will come into contact with the same potentially infected surfaces.
Different ends of the building by about 200 feet
Separating the infected from those who want to get vaccinated will not happen without barriers and a lot of people neither of which is likely to be in place.
So what is YOUR suggestion eh?
Do we have a ‘Red List’ of countries that people cannot come to Cayman from due to high infection rates particularly with the new more virulent strains? The US and UK have such lists which seems like a very good idea. I don’t think that we should be allowing people to come from places with high infection rates simply by flying through Jamaica or Miami or any other place.
If they made a list like that there would be no flights at all. Yesterday US #1 and UK #5 for new cases while their populations are #3 and #21 respectively.
Sounds like we definitely need a ‘Red List’.
This makes complete sense to me and I’ve been saying it all along. The airport is not in use to the extent it is designed for. It has large air conditioned spaces and guide ropes for forming efficient lines plus tons of parking. If you want to do something like this en masse the airport is the best place to do it. Plus I also say make a priority line (which it sounds like they are doing) for 70+, health workers, airport workers etc. then a 50+ line, then a everyone else line. Sure younger folks might wait a while to get it or not get it on a day that they go, but not a single dose will be wasted either just because people get turned away and vaccine gets warmed then goes bad waiting for someone with the right criteria to show up.
One problem is that the airport AC system does not have Hepa-filters and UV scrubbers so that vulnerable people going to get vaccinated may end up sharing recirculated air with potentially infected passengers arriving from places with the new variants such as the UK, US, Central America and Jamaica. It would probably be safer if they switched the AC system off or only allowed people in to be vaccinated when there have been no infected incoming passengers for more than 72 hours.
Sensible logic that seems lost on the professional full time organizers. Especially when the hospital clinics have managed just fine with almost 1000 administered per day. It’s almost like the PPM want the new variant to get into the community, so they can pretend to come to the rescue with another protracted lockdown, and extend their time in power through emergency measures. Wouldn’t put it past them.
The chance of the virus travelling that far is slim to none. The airport seems a good central option as the OP outlined, even given some remote chance of infection from a visitor which, as you noted, are not daily occurrences now anyway, compared to the overflow occurring at (some) HSA sites previously.
How on earth is the airport central when I have to come from East End for my second dose now. 5 minute walk to my local clinic or almost all day and a very long walk by bus. Might be central to those in George Town and surrounds but please don’t forget all of us in East End, Northside and Rum Point areas. The airport is a long way for us and not easy to get to without a car.
So are you saying that the Covid vaccine sites that we have using – community Centers and the like – have Hepa-filters and UV scrubbers???
Get real and stop trying to put up roadblocks!
Last time I checked planes carrying infected travelers were not landing next to Community clinics.