Over 1/4 of population fully vaccinated
(CNS): With new figures reported by public health on Friday reflecting that more than 600 people in the Sister Islands have received their second COVID-19 shot, the percentage of the entire population that has now received both doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is now more than 26% of the estimated population of the Cayman Islands. So far, 28,861, or around 44% of the estimated population have received at least one dose after several weeks of the shots being available to all. Meanwhile, travellers are still arriving carrying the virus. Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee reported four positive cases among a batch of 484 test results.
The four people concerned are among 23 active cases, four of which are suffering symptoms of the coronavirus. At the moment there are 931 people in isolation at home or in government quarantine.
Public health has not yet indicated how many people arriving have been vaccinated and able to take advantage of the shortened quarantine period after the new protocols were introduced Monday.
Category: Local News
The news from CIG is that there were 12 new positives among arrivals over the weekend, despite the fact that people are supposed to get tested within 72 hours of flying. If that is being done why are there so many positives arriving????
Another question is when is government going to release information on what percentage of these new positives are because of the new variants?
The determination of the Covid variant is another highly specialized test requiring sequencing of the genetic material. This is totally separate from the PCR test.This requires specialized equipment and expertise (the US only sequences about 1% of positive results for surveillance purposes).
The HSA would have to (and is) send away a sample of the positives to get information on the variants.
Given that we are receiving population from around the world, we can assume the presences of multiple variants. All in quarantine so far.
People will continue to arrive on our shores who have Covid-19 or the variants. Some of those people will be those who’ve been previously vaccinated with the Pfizer.
Immunity, apparently, is only achieved by the J&J or AstraZeneca.
Not true at all!
You’re both wrong. There is no bullet proofing with vaccines, that’s not how they work. There is definitely no immunity conferred with a vaccine against last year’s strain or (yet) against the new dominant variants, just as neither are recently recovered fully-protected against re-infection. One can get infected, and possibly sick, but the vaccine hopefully delivers immune system awareness, so your illness journey is shorter and hopefully not deadly. Humanity doesn’t yet know if that is a lasting awareness, whether it wears off over time. It’s probably a much more complicated discussion since everyone’s immune response, and health will vary.
You are 100% WRONG.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-30/pfizer-moderna-covid-vaccines-effectiveness-study/100037356
If you ride a donkey apparently you’re immune to everything.
How do we know that some of the travellers are not recovered / post virus? I have staff that have had Covid that still test positive intermittently 2 months after recovery.
Is this not why the CDC says recovered Covid recovered people should not be tested unless they have symptoms for 90 days after recovery?
Covid: Secret filming exposes contamination risk at test results lab.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56556806
Come on Alden, what’s this week’s percentage required to get the borders open?
to tackle covid…if it is mandatory to wear masks, social distancing, stop going to the beaches???…why is not mandatory to take the vaccine…?
it is the solution the world has been waiting for but now we are letting people make choices that can harm others?????
We are the fourth highest vaccinated population on the planet. Fourth!
I agree with your comment to an extent, but I have life-threatening allergies which prevents me from taking the Pfizer vaccine. I will have to wait for research on Oxford and J&J vaccines before getting vaccinated. Neither Pfizer nor Moderna vaccines are recommended for people with severe allergies.
It does depend on the allergy. I have severe allergies that are not related to anything contained in the vaccine and have had both shots without any trouble or reaction to the second shot. Saying anyone with severe allergies shouldn’t take the vaccine is very misleading.
No you don’t
So much for attaining herd immunity. Too many Trumpites and conspiracy theorists amongst us. When they start suffering the most and can’t travel to Miami to do their shopping, the stipend will increase again. Evangelicals and hypocritical bible thumpers that refuse vaccination need to understand that good things come to those who know how to help themselves and their fellow citizen non-believers.
zzzzzz
By any international benchmark, this is commendable news…#4 in the world (Gibraltar 82.08%, Israel 52.06%, Seychelles 34.20%, and Cayman Islands 23.80%)! With 552,000,000 doses successfully administered worldwide. But we are still a long way off from being bulletproof as a society, if there is such a thing. New arriving variants, now dominant elsewhere, are much more contagious with illness presenting even among those presumed to have recent recovery “immunity”, and in younger age brackets that had been thought previously to be of lower concern. 50% of those now being hospitalized elsewhere are under age 50. We cannot afford to become complacent or ease into what is already a pandemic third wave. At some point we may need to rethink our reopen expectations, airlift policies, and maybe reverse some of the frequency/corridors, to take into account the changing global clinical realities. This isn’t over yet.
Really?! Only a quarter? The vaccine was rolled out in early Jan, was it not? Almost 3 months later, just 44% of the estimated population have received at least one dose?? Change the airport clinic hours to close at 9pm daily and stay open 24 hours on saturdays and sundays so working people can get it!
Opening hours don’t mean anything if people don’t show up to get the shots. Too many right wing antivax idiots floating around this place…
Too many getting their facts from social media
And get rid of the now idiotic alphabet requirement!
Outstanding. We went up 1% from a week ago. Considering the diminishing willing participants and variant evolution we should be able to safely open the border by 2065. But we’ll see how it goes….
Could be 2026 at this rate…or maybe never. Hope everyone enjoys the isolation, it isn’t likely to end any time soon. Covid isn’t going anywhere, every virus mutates, and Covid is no different. I will be surprised if we ever reach 80% vaccination rate, too many people are afraid of the vaccine and I think people will avoid vaccination because they do not ever want tourism to return.
If the Gov put a firm date on opening vaccine or no vaccine you may be surprised to see more people willing to get vaccinated. I know that sounds strange but people don’t like being manipulated and having the goals moved. Once everyone has the opportunity to get vaccinated there shouldn’t be any quarantine. Until then, many are playing the same game as the government..wait and see.
Could the Government please tell us how many people are actually here?
If they knew, they maybe would. No census done in 2020 so population data is 10+ years old.
“Could the government please tell us how many people are actually here?”
The answer is, NO. They don’t know.
After election
In October 2020, ESO estimated that the current population was about 65K.
See following story –> https://caymannewsservice.com/2020/10/population-now-around-65k-eso-estimates/
Yep. Estimated being the key word. Census was supposed to take place last year but didn’t.
Yes the Census 2020 exercise that had been scheduled for October 2020 was rescheduled due to Covid situation. Cabinet made that decision in August 2020.
That decision was likely made due to several reasons including an unstable labour market, logistical challenges in recruiting and training several hundred enumerators and carrying out the survey, uncertaintity given the pandemic risks, etc. Not much point to carry out a Census with skewed data due to a surreal situation, in my mind, given the cost of such an exercise.
Having estimates of population is still better than having no clue as was the case that Cayman faced immediately after Hurricane Ivan.