Quarantine to be reduced to 10 days
(CNS): Government has announced that over 91% of the over 60s have now been vaccinated and as a result the COVID-19 regulations will be changed later this month to reduce the mandatory quarantine period to ten days for travellers who have been vaccinated and produce the necessary negative test result. Premier Alden McLaughlin said the government was continuing to take a very cautious approach to keep the community COVID-free. Despite the increasingly positive news about the effectiveness of the vaccine, he said the uncertainty over transmission, the spread of variants and the fact that not everyone is or can be vaccinated means the phased approach would continue.
At a press briefing Wednesday, McLaughlin said that the Cayman Islands remains in an enviable position but officials would continue to watch what was happening around the world and with the data relating to the vaccine’s efficacy and ability to prevent transmission to enable the quarantine to be reduced further.
He said he was still hopeful that once the vaccination level here reached around 80% of the population, the quarantine requirement would be lifted completely. But he said there was “a ways to go” before that happened because at present just over 31% of the population has received a first shot.
For the first time the premier noted that children would have to be counted in that figure. But since the vaccine will not be available for kids before the summer, which Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez said would be for those over 12, the complete removal of quarantine could now be much further away than the previous May target date.
The premier confirmed that no other changes were being made to the current lingering restrictions, which remain largely confined to a prohibition on hookah pipes and a 1,000 limit on crowd sizes, regardless of the election campaign. The change in quarantine requirements is also relatively minor, as anyone who arrives in Cayman without being able to demonstrate that they have had an authentic course of vaccines will still need to quarantine for 14 days. In addition, all members of a party that will be quarantining together need to be vaccinated, so families with unvaccinated children will still need to isolate for two weeks. And all parties will still need to have negative tests before arrival, on arrival and a final one before they can leave isolation.
Government is also changing the regulations to extend the potential sanctions for COVID-19 breaches ($10,000 fine or two years in jail) to people who try to enter Cayman with a false or forged vaccine certificate.
Meanwhile, Governor Martyn Roper confirmed that Cayman would receive three more batches of the Pfizer vaccine from the UK over the next few weeks. When the last shipment arrives at the beginning of April, the country will have had over 100,000 doses. He said that he is speaking with officials in the UK about securing a small number of the AstraZeneca vaccines for those who are unable for health reasons to take the Pfizer shot.
As Cayman approaches almost one year since the first positive test and the lockdown began, McLaughlin said he was “overwhelmed by the success” of how the country managed the pandemic and now the vaccine rollout.
While the reduction in isolation is unlikely to have any real impact on the tourism sector, the premier confirmed that the Global Citizenship Programme is still attracting applicants. So far, 267 wealthy people have applied for the special visa and140 of them have been approved or are already here.
With the border opening still some way off, Health Minister Dwayne Seymour confirmed that 984 people will have their health insurance premiums paid for March, April and May and that local musicians still impacted by the tourism shutdown are being invited to apply for another $1,000 stipend. Anyone who received the first payout need not re-apply but new applicants should contact the ministry before 19 March.
Finance Minister Roy McTaggart gave a rundown of the government’s unaudited figures for 2020 and revealed that the final deficit for central government was around $38 million, which is far less than the $168 million that his ministry had warned of in the early days of the pandemic last year.
Check back to CNS later for more on the government’s financial results.
See Wednesday’s press briefing on CIGTV below:
Category: Health, Medical Health
When do you think we will see travel restrictions lifted for US Travelers? I am planning a honeymoon and our dream destination was your island. Our wedding is now only us and a couple family members in the middle of April. Any chance US Travelers allowed by Mid-April, May or possibly June?
Doubtful. They keep moving the goalposts for opening border.
Only if you want to spend your honeymoon in quarantine …
When the only tool you have is a hammer, you’ll swing it at everything and anything.
We live in extraordinary times. Not because of a pandemic (there’s not one). But of how the supposed qualified experts and leaders have responded and continue to respond to Covid 19.
In one College they allow students to wrestle, BUT they cannot shake hands beforehand or after because of Covid. The insanity of the past 15 months knows no bounds.
Lockdowns, masks, all of these so called non pharmaceutical interventions have done nothing to prevent the spread of Covid19. It spreads if and when it wants. Many will not believe this because they’ve convinced themselves after 15 months of panic media and naive governmental intervention in their lives that of course Covid has been stopped because of lockdowns, etc. It has not. Go study New Mexico. California. England. Anywhere really.
Its a casedemic. They run the cycles on the PCR far too high. You’ve never seen asymptomatic spreads of any meaningful %’age before in history because its not a thing. But now? Apparently it is. It’s not.
And now we have the vaccine. The savior! Except it doesn’t actually stop you getting it. Doesn’t stop you spreading it. And apparently will stop you dying from it BUT that is only if you were going to die from it in the first place. And 99.7% of all of us who ended up very ill with Covid were never going to die from it.
Its hard to believe. Alas its true. If you’re obese, you have a great chance of dying from Covid IF you get it. Same if you’re very old.
Kinda like any disease. Remember when we shut down the world for cancer? Diabetes? etc. etc.
And now all of a sudden the vaccine is fine for kids from 12? They don’t know what they are doing. They don’t know what they are even fighting (its a bad flu). But still you’re locked away, locked down, no mass gatherings. (remember when the covid19 was going to go crazy because of Black Lives Matter protests? it didn’t).
Its seasonal. Its not as bad as was feared. It is VERY bad for a VERY few us. The same few who will struggle with any disease. Of course exceptions apply. But you cannot lock down the world, enforce jabs, steal liberties, kill economies, for a few exceptions (statistically).
Life sucks, we die. it seems people didnt know that 60Million of us die each year. But show them a few body bags in the streets, and we give everything up…….crazy
Protected from what? The fatality rate for children is not more then a regular flu. Has the world gone mad?
It should be illegal to force quarantine after everyone has had the opportunity to vaccinate. It’s also senseless policy.
Pretty sure you could challenge a long quarantine in court once herd immunity is reached. The outside risks associated with different variants have to be accepted. If a variant emerges just after we open our borders, there will be nothing we can do about it, and another variant after that, and another. We know this thing will mutate forever like other coronaviruses. We have to deal with that reality. I cannot believe having had to wait so long for vaccines, they now want to impose quarantine on people who are vaccinated. It’s almost as if they just allowed a short window where if you were vaccinated there was no quarantine so that everyone vaccinated early could get off island and come back in time to lock the rest of us back in here, even as we get our shots. I would use words for this CNS would not approve.
73% of people admitted to hospital have been overweight. I am young, fit, and healthy. Due to others poor life decisions I may need to subject my body to an experimental vaccine to receive the same travel freedoms as the vaccinated. This is very sick.
It’s now been shown that the vaccines are effective vs 94% variants and the chances of a vaccinated person transmitting the virus, even asymptomatically are very low. Vaccinated individuals with negative Covid tests should be able to come to Cayman, without quarantine. Let us help you restore your tourism industry and the economy!
Great job Cayman! I’m thrilled to see the Premier acknowledge that children under 16 still need to be protected.
I don’t know where to start.
Your statistic. Child deaths account for 0.2% of the US total. So far 530,000 people in the USA have died “with” covid.
There are 74 million children in the USA. Roughly 20% of the population. If 0.2% of those 530,000 deaths were kids then that’s 1,060 out of the 530,000. So that’s 1,060 out of 74 million kids.
Unfortunately my abacus can’t round down to numbers that low.
Suffice to say 1,060 deaths out of a population of 74,000,000 is absolutely crystal clearly no risk. And that’s assuming that the number of positives is correct. Which it isn’t. There will be dozens of millions of people who have had, and who have recovered from, covid.
Your other statement – 7 child deaths in Tennessee out of 130,000 (known – there will be plenty more unknown) child infections – also causes my calculator to start returning percentage numbers in scientific format because they’re so small.
There is absolutely no need to “protect our children by vaccinating all adults”.
The lack of critical thinking and inability to understand even the most basic of mathematics is becoming embarrassing.
Pastor Alfredo
They are very dumb and they cannot help it.
Why don’t you ask big guy to stop making viruses, cancer and mosquitoes be a thing since you know best
This press briefing was nothing more than a stint to boost the popularity of the PPM..total flop Alden and Roy..try again..
What proof of vaccination do people visiting Cayman need to produce to prove that they have been vaccinated? Do the airline staff and border control know how to distinguish a valid vaccination certificate from a fake one?
What proof will the tourism staff need to show that they are vaccinated? What about those at the airport? Transportation? Restaurants? I hope they won’t be able to fake their immunization cards and/ or Covid tests.
Question Planing a trip to the Caymans in June. What is the possibility of the borders being open by then ?
8:01 Unlikely
Sadly, they keep changing criteria for opening every time we close in on meeting them. Save yourself the stress of guessing if your trip will happen….book a fabulous vacation elsewhere. I hate to say that but they’re not making a genuine effort to get us opened up.
Everyone freaking out because the quarantine will be reduced to 10 days should calm down. The 10 day vs 14 day quarantine IS NOT going to bring tourist or a large number of people back to the island. And let’s face it, most of our tourist are families with children. None of them will return and spend 14 days in quarantine. Well possibly those that can stay here for months while their kids go to school virtually but those are few and far between.
The truth is the reopening plan has never really been a plan. Just as many mentioned a few weeks ago when Alden said the border would reopen without quarantine when 70% of the entire population was vaccinated. See how it has changed? Now kids are part of the 70% with no hope of kids being able to vaccinated until summer….IF THEN. So there is really no plan or no target for getting the border open.
Let’s just stay like this forever. Who needs tourism? Who needs to travel anywhere? Who needs to figure out how to live WITH covid because it’s not going to vanish? Clearly NOT the Cayman Islands.
Yes this ticks me off. Make a plan, share the plan and STICK WITH THE PLAN. Stop moving the goal post. Give everyone in the tourism industry the chance to figure out how they will prepare to welcome tourist back. Business can’t be ready at the drop of a hat. People need top be hired and trained, supplies ordered, etc. But without a plan how can anyone be ready WHEN and IF (and I do mean IF) the border is reopened?
Well said!
The Vaccines for children are still in trial so there probably won’t be any vaccines for children until the end of the year.
can someone please explain:
if through sufficent vaccination of the population,the risk of death/serious illness drops to the same level of seasonal flu….then why can’t we re-open?
Because they have ring and they don’t want to give it back.
Please DON’T use the UK as an example regarding proactive covid prevention actions! UK’s Trump did the same to UK residents as the Orange Dictator did to US residents!
I’m grateful to the UK for providing guidance and vaccines to Cayman but that is its DUTY, under UN and other international protocols, as the State!
Otherwise, UK has no room to offer advice and you’re way off-base by using UK as a measure!! Thank you!
F^ck you you’re living in a Trump utopia being in Cayman and it’s President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed that make the vaccines arrive within a year instead of 4 years.
Pfizer, which produced the first approved vaccine, which all persons in Cayman are taking, did not participate in Operation Warp Speed. It received no federal funding or help. It is NO thanks to Donald J. Trump AT ALL that Cayman has these vaccines, which were bought by the UK from a commercial company (Pfizer).
A Trump supporter with a statement that is completely incorrect. Shocking.
In July, Pfizer got a $1.95 billion deal with the government’s Operation Warp Speed, the multiagency effort to rush a vaccine to market, to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine. The arrangement is an advance-purchase agreement, meaning that the company won’t get paid until they deliver the vaccines. Pfizer did not accept federal funding to help develop or manufacture the vaccine, unlike front-runners Moderna and AstraZeneca.
spokeswoman for Pfizer clarified that the company is part of Operation Warp Speed as a supplier of a potential coronavirus vaccine.
There you go you f*cking tool.
A CNN viewer lemming watching fake news with no realization that CNN is BS. On top of that you live in the most right wing country on the planet – should Nancy Pelosi values be applied to Cayman – open borders, pathway to citizenship for illegals, raise the corporate and personal tax rates in Cayman from 0 to 35%. How about abortion clinics? You are a total hypocrite
another bad day at the office for alden…and totally contradicts what he said a couple of weeks ago…when he said 90% vaccination of over 60’s would let people travel without quarantine.
alden just kicking the can down the road again.
cayman will never achieve voluntary 80% vaccination….and would lvoe to know his source regarding child vaccinations this summer.
dismal to the end
There will be no child vaccinations this summer they are still in trials so could not be till next year
There is no politician more odious than Alden McLaughlin, a publicised Master Mason.
He needs to be consigned to the garbage can of Caymanian nightmares.
It’s a minus one from me.
Poor Alden..Election pressure from the anti-vaxxers so he has to be seen to be doing something prior to election day..
Looks like Turkeys and Hams aren’t working and people want the PPM to step it up. Dinner and Champagne at the Kimpton this Friday night for those of you in the elite class of the PPM.
Every time McLaughlin tries to say something, he come across as a male model pouting for the camera.
I cannot stand this arrogant narcissist.
Bryan is a close second.
They are a pair of cockerels.
No to McLaughlin, no to Bryan and a big bloody NO to Roper.
… Mean while government is ‘patting themes selves on the back’ for saving the Cayman Islands…
while the rest of us who are; not working in civil service, are not receiving a stimulus check from tourism, are either still unemployed or working on reduced salaries, are one call away from losing our homes to the banks and our MENTAL health to stress.
Any body else being called by debt collectors from Scotia bank since Covid!!???
Again, the government policy has no basis. Ten day quarantine makes no sense for vaccinated people. This is based on science.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/11/pfizer-covid-vaccine-blocks-94percent-of-asymptomatic-infections-and-97percent-of-symptomatic-cases-in-israeli-study.html
Exactly! So many other countries have figured this out. If FULLY vaccinated at least two weeks prior to travel, there should be ZERO need to quarantine or even take a test. So many other countries have figured this out!
https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/vaccinated-travelers-welcome-belize-without-covid-test?fbclid=IwAR1p-M7Lu0YocTdYMa57YT-GrH679xcmRrYsF81Mb30gz3H2MG-kn9CjujQ
For the dummies: it’s the rest of the planet dealing with Covid, that set the pace of our policy. It should never be the other way around. Thanks.
One thing no one is looking at. You get vaccinated. It’s only good for a year. Then you have to re vaccinate. Well. seems like an endless loop. The only way to do it, you open up in april to people who live in cayman only. While pushing vaccination. Then the next month you open up to the UK. with rules about vaccination before entry. Then Jamaica. Then the next month, you open up to canada. then the next month the US of A. The the final month, global. So this is a 6 months slowly allow covid in. 40% won’t know they have it. vacinnated or not. The ones that would have been effected, are vaccinated, they are fine. the ones that would have died from it, get ill but recover. What more can you expect to do. This virus is NOT going away. and it’s only becoming stronger. What happens when the strong one hits cayman and no one has had covid 1.0. HIGHER mortality rate.
want immunity from covid. or immunity from covid 2.0. You have to GET covid. Or the vaccine. Take your pick. But in a years time. Your back to square one. Then you either need to get covid, or the vaccine. This is NOT going away
Could you please provide a link showing where the CDC has stated that the vaccines only last for one year? I have never seen or heard that. In fact, they are unsure at this point whether they may last a lifetime. They just don’t know yet, but they will be doing blood test some people to check for antibodies overtime. But by all means, if you have seen somewhere that there is proof that we will need to be revaccinated in a year because we will lose our antibodies, please provide that link to the information
The vaccine trials – in which I am a participant – are checking antibody levels of many thousands of people at the following intervals from shot #2 – 1 month, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months. Pfizer are also monitoring for any covid symptoms on a weekly basis – I think some trials are testing for asymptomatic infection but Pfizer is not (although any positive test has to be reported to the trial).
Jam should be a long way out. Have you seen their recent numbers?
There shouldn’t even be flights from there right now.
The CDC data says that with or without vaccination reducing the quarantine period from 14 days to 10 days increases the risk of Covid by between 1 and 10%.
Those most at risk who were vaccinated first will soon be 6 months post vaccination. 6 months is the limit of evidence of effectiveness of the vaccine. Are we are going to open the doors to the virus at the time that the effect of the vaccine wears off? What is the plan???
They were vaccinated in October? 3 months before the vaccine was approved, how did they manage that
By joining a vaccine trial. They have been running since last summer.
What is the standard for proof of vaccination in Cayman and who reviews the documentation and enforces the standard. Will a note hand written in Crayon do?
The airline industry recognises that fake Covid test results and fake proof of vaccination are rapidly increasing.
https://www.internationalairportreview.com/news/150441/warning-serious-risk-air-travel-fake-covid-19-test/
Those jabbed get their vax card with date, batch number, etc., signed and stamped by administering clinicians, and they will mirror that info in your yellow WHO vax passport, if you have one. Travel apps, like one being devised by IATA are still in trial. This is as real as it gets…anywhere.
Do you need a yellow WHO vax passport for travel and how to get one? Noticed officials were given a yellow card when received vaccine, we received white cards at vaccination.
Being vaccinated does not prevent people from catching or spreading the virus. Reducing the quarantine period while the data is not in on the new strains is crazy.
Keep up at the back; evidence now that it is highly effective at preventing transmission
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/pfizer-vaccine-shows-94-effectiveness-asymptomatic-transmission-covid/story?id=76389615
Both vaccines that the uk are using are hopefully preventing transmission.
Reducing the chance of becoming extremely sick and being hospitalized and/ or dying puts it on the same level as the flu. Do we close borders for the flu? Make sure people are vaccinated and open borders.
This is taking things way beyond reasonable. First it was we need to vaccine the elderly, then it was we need at least 90% of over 60’s vaccinated before we think of opening and lowering quarantine to 7 days. Now we are at 10 days which is not much different than the 14/15 days and no indication of opening boarders but now have to wait for the children. What freaking cool aide are you drinking Alden? What is the point of getting your most vulnerable vaccinated to just keep riding us along into another year of non travel and continue to destroy our tourism? When are you going to understand that financially the government cannot continue to fund the little it does to keep people from just surviving with stimulus payments because they have no jobs? When are you going to tell people that the truth is we have to learn to live with it just like we do with other viruses?. Remember we still have the swine flu and Ebola out there but I guess no one worries about those, nope because the damn Media didn’t hype it up. We need to be smart not stupid, we got the vulnerable vaccinated now let’s open in phases, if it makes people feel comfortable then request a 3 day quarantine with negative test and move on from there.
Amen every press conference he comes up with some new justification to keep pushing off the border reopening, now children must be vaccinated, they are just now doing phase 1 studies on children. Border looks like its never going to be open completely insane
The Koolaid of “perception trumps facts and reason”
There is a LONG road ahead to navigate. Other countries are estimating 2023-2024 before air travel corridors open to pre- COVID travel conditions , but those countries don’t have the tourism needs that places like Cayman have for income. cayman is hamstrung by being both an island that needs air travel, as well as a tourism product that needs air travel. Neither will be happening in 2021. CIG knows all this, hence the non focus on border opening.
No government stimulus cheques then there should be another pension fund WITHDRAWAL!!! Cayman is one of the very few countries in the world with annual Government surplus and yet even during this pandemic refuse to provide stimulus. Ultra right wing country at its finest! I want my motherf*cking pension money to invest wisely on my own instead these BS pensions grossly underperforming the markets and 1.5% annual fee. White collar blatant theft of all pensioners. I bet the heads of those pension funds are living large fat bastards living at the Ritz. Almost as big of a rip off as getting your car repaired at GT.
No you can’t have your pension. It is for your old age.
We have to get there in some condition to enjoy it before we worry about how much money we’ll have
4:58: People, in other countries, that got stimulus packages are ALL income tax paying citizens.
And where do you think the duty tax we pay comes from if it isn’t income?
Decision to buy votes that may back fire. Lots of things going on now because is close to election time lots of people is stupid and buying it, but remember its still more sensible people in Cayman who can see right through it.
Well Alden, not sure what today was about other than an opportunity to get in front of the people before election.
Why bother reducing it from 14 days to 11 days? Does it really make a difference. If someone can make 14 days now they can make 14 days after March 22.
Makes a difference to me. We’re coming to deal with our house now. Being locked up two weeks was just too much.
Can you all just give a clear message to us as offshore owners of Caymanian residences? Do you want us back or not?
Thanks.
We are happy for you to safely return. It is just Covid we do not want whether it is brought in by a Caymanian or an overseas property owner.
No
Sure…
Please Return
We love you
Just follow the CVD protection rules which you will enjoy once you are out and about on the Islands
It’s a lovely bubble that the smart ones of us enjoy here year round despite the restrictions in other countries that are trying to catch up
Health and Peace out
Fantastic comment. Signed, Rich A. Privileged.
Not sure what’s your problem? I have a friend from the USA who owns property in Cayman. She came in December, did her 14 day quarantine, spent the next two months here, got both her vaccines (she was eligible), went back to USA to pack-up all her belongings to move here permanently.
So, is there something in that process that CIG is preventing you from doing – if you chose?
How was she eligible to get vaccinated after spending only 2 months here? Then left again. Checked her date of birth but not residency status? Lots of money?
Not particularly
Doesn’t seem that way, does it?
Cancel all on-island stipends and drop the civil service paychecks by 20% to stop gap that deficit. Let’s see how long everyone keep singing from the “borders closed” hymnsheet after that.
They won’t hit their 80% of total population target. I was 50/50 about getting jabbed because I think the risk to myself of catching and developing a serious illness with covid is minutely small given my age and my health. I’m entitled to draw my own conclusions on this.
Conversely, and having spoken to a bunch of people who have had both jabs, the risk of getting so sick that I’m bed ridden for days after the second dose seems incredibly high. Add in the fact that NO ONE knows what the long term risks of the vaccine are and, on balance, I’d really rather not bother.
If you wish to get vacinated that’s your choice and the fact that I don’t impacts you not one bit because, even if I give it to you, you won’t get sick.
Until today, the only reason I’d considered getting vacinated was to ensure that I could travel. Now that the government have relegated me, and anyone else with children, to 14 day leper quarantine status regardless of whether or not we’ve had the vaccine then I see absolutely no point taking the unknown long term risk of getting jabbed when there is currently virtually zero reward. I suspect I’m not the only one who has come to this conclusion this evening. Getting to 80% just won’t happen. My children will not be having a vaccine for something that is crystal clearly no risk to them.
Ensure there’s enough supply, offer the vaccine to anyone who wants it any time in the next six weeks and then open the border with zero restrictions. Job done. Those who don’t want it are of no risk to those that do.
Pastor Alfredo
I don’t usually endorse Pastors’ comments but you are bang on the money here.
Pastor
Stipends and the like are now a norm the in many places around this little globe and so are government deficits.
Still many of these places struggle with COVID.
Continue to preach to your herd but please understand that many of the people on here are not dumb enough to fall for your “gospel”.
Rgds, Pastor Truthero
Happy to keep receiving your free money whilst you enjoy the status quo, eh? That’s a perfectly reasonable and sustainable position to take from your high horse whilst surrounded by your friends and your family who are doing the same.
Elsewhere on the island the other half of the population have friends and family in other places on this little globe that they haven’t seen now for a year. And you’re content to persist with that all the while your cash keeps coming in from a government running out of money. Nothing’s really changed for you and your existence on a rock in the Caribbean. Everyone else would quite like to get off and have a break and visit relatives without the need to be locked in their house for two weeks upon returning.
What is your solution? Keep the system in place until an unrealistic proportion of the population has received a jab? I don’t want it and won’t get it while I still have to isolate upon my return. My kids won’t be getting it at all. What business is it of yours whether or not I choose to get vaccinated when it has zero impact on your health whatsoever?
Pastor Alfredo
Do not know who the bunch of people you spoke to that were bedridden for days, myself and bunch of others had little or no reaction. Some people here have a sniffle and become bedridden without this virus or vacc, poor me drama.
Pastors are LEADERS,
Your flock respects YOU. As our borders open (they will) COVID 19 will become a real risk again and your congregations are seated closely together and mingle 1-1 with tourists, visiting families, grocery stores, etc…
Take a page from common sense and do your part to Educate and Vaccinate!!
See a real Christian perspective here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-55747784
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-55747784
Glad you don’t preach at my church..
I think you’re being a bit short sighted. This is an evolving policy as known facts evolve. Taking a conservative approach to start it prudent, given no one knows with certainty if those who are vaccinated can transmit all the various variants in existence. Further, there are developments around vaccines for kids that may also change quarantines as these are approved and rolled out. So, instead of throwing your toys out of the pram because you can’t hop on a plane to travel (newsflash – this isn’t happening anywhere, by the way), why don’t you get your vaccine so you CAN travel when the situation evolves to your particular liking.
Crystal clearly no risk? The only way to protect our children is to vaccinate all adults.
12% of all cases:
3 MILLION children have contracted COVID in the USA (and not all reported)
Washington Post
“ Still, nearly 3 million children in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, about 12 percent of all cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
For some children, the extra protection wasn’t enough. Nor were extraordinary efforts by EMTs, doctors and nurses, who pumped and pressed and prayed long beyond each child’s last breath.
Child deaths amount to 0.2 percent of the U.S. total, and as of early this month, 10 states had suffered no child fatalities. One state that has had more than its share of pediatric cases is Tennessee, where 130,000 kids have gotten infected and seven have died, including Gigi Morse, whose mother called her “Gigi Pickles.”
This is the most on point comment. Perfectly reasoned.
Of course not getting vaccinated affects the rest of us. What a selfish and irresponsible message to put your name to, not to mention scientifically illiterate.
alden and the actions of spineless lame duck leader seeing out his final days with more soon-come nonsense.
8.23pm Thank God for the actions taken by Alden and his Government. Sensible leadership has saved lives.
Banana republic dictator! Constantly changing the goal posts with zero scientific support. Few weeks ago it was 70% of th population now it is 80%, and the absolute nail in the coffin, vaccination of the children with no vaccine for children expected till summer. Vaccinated persons with 2 weeks immunity are still required to quarantine, again with no scientific support and contrary to even CDC recommendations.
Mr. Alden does not suffer from any of these restrictions, he will continue to prosper, but ordinary citizens bare the brunt of his random actions. For those who are ready to press the dislike button, please send me your obvious riches, as apparently you are prospering under these conditions. Many of us are not! Maybe i should be grateful i was allowed to deplete my own pension?
Enough is enough with Alden. From covid restrictuons, same sex marriage, cruise ship port, and support of criminal assault against women by elected official. Yes, he is the man! Oh right, he did save us from complete absolute death of all on the island.
If Cayman can not elect honest morall competent officials then maybe self governance is not for Cayman and the UK should take control.
Extreme thoughts, but man, this government is sickening.
Where does he even get the idea that children will be vaccinated in summer? In the UK we have no vaccines for under 18s!
There are clinical trials currently running for COVID vaccines for kids. Summer/fall potential rollout. This is easily Googleable.
The trials are to establish if there would be any benefit to children with certain conditions, not for general distribution.
No plans to give AZ to anyone under 18.
No plans to give Pfizer to anyone under 16.
They are not licensed.
Premier is twisting the facts for his own purposes … yet again.
16 here in Cayman
Totally agree there are no vaccines for children yet.
I think we need some type of stimulus. Even a small stimulus of $500 would massively increase economic prosperity given the fact that tourism will not return until late fall, if ever. It is certainly better use of funds than for the Turtle farm, or whatever woke name they are calling it by now.
At the very least they should give a duty waiver as no one is able to travel overseas and gets their personal allowance on return.
That is only helpful if you have money to spend.
Your pension money done or wah?
Your turn soon come!
It is actually the non-binary, multiped, potentially-edible, ,indivisible strain of possibly hard-backed swimming and potentially non-flying, quasi-human demi-gods Farm, if you please.
Please do not demean us with such a glib and simplistic, non-inclusive, non-representative moniker as “Turtle Farm”.
Can you imagine the lawsuits if a transgender female bumblebee decided to identify as a male heterosexual turtle?
I say increase the stimuli until everyone is satisfactorily stimulated.
What will $500. Do? Not much.
Is this going to make a difference to anyone? It’s not going to make a difference to tourists (for whom 14 or 10 days in quarantine is neither here nor there). It makes no difference to most families on island who – even with vaccinated adults – will still have to quarantine for the full 14 days if they have kids under 16. And it’s not going to please those who don’t want any relaxation of the border until some seemingly unlikely cast iron guarantee can be given that covid poses no risk to anyone in Cayman. I’m not saying it’s a bad decision given the status of vaccine rollout/concern about new strains, but it seems more designed as a pre-election PR stunt than the meaningful change people hoped for.
Good!
The entire thing is a joke at this stage. Wait for a vaccine and you’ll be fine. Now it’s get a vaccine, but still quarantine and also take a test! They have no idea why they’re doing, just simply locking you down and taking away your freedoms
It will never end
There is no pandemic, there is an endemic variant of a virus that’s pretty bad but in o way at all as bad as you’ve been told
Somebody needs to stop this garbage
Of the vaccine works, you should be fine..but oh no, you’re not
So why take it?!!!!!?!
Hahahaha. Jokes on all of you.
Quit changing the goal posts!!! Poeple are making huge life decisions based on what you say about when we are opening!
We need this place open asap, just because the biggest voter block, the civil service, is secure from unemployment doesn’t mean the decision to continue to delay opening is OK.
As soon as 70% of adults have been vaccinated we need to open up.
And yes, I have kids, and yes I have elderly parents and grandparents.
Hopefully the next government will have better sense.
14 days.. 10 days.. it doesn’t make a difference in peoples decision to travel. This is not the reduction people where promised…
Things have changed since that time, keep up and quit bitching
80% of the population being vaccinated inclusive of Children is wild. It’s likely not possible to be met until the vaccine for 12-16 year olds is available and even then may be a struggle. What I don’t understand is the science behind it. The vaccine prevents people getting sick to the point of hospitalization or dying. Once everyone has had the opportunity to receive the vaccine if they want to we need to start a phased reopening.
This disease is unlikely being completely eliminated anytime soon and it is something we will have to learn to live with. The point has always been to prevent people being hospitalized or dying (remember the whole ‘flatten the curve’), not to eradicate the disease before we open. Why wait for children, who are at incredibly low from this disease (and even then not those under 12) to receive being we open up. They are not an at risk group so waiting to open until they get the vaccine is craziness.
There are many issues that come with being isolated on this island least of which is continued economic fallout for anyone in anything close to the tourism or travel industry. There is extended time away from family, along with missing weddings and even funerals of family members and loved ones all because some people choose not to take the vaccine or are too young to receive it. There is being conservative and there is being irresponsible with peoples financial and mental health well being and I think we are crossing into the later with these crazy reopening ‘plans’.
@5:33pm you are absolutely correct! This is now bordering on insanity. Quote: “He said he was still hopeful that once the vaccination level here reached around 80% of the population, the quarantine requirement would be lifted completely.”
I guess they have a plan to drag the unwilling in kicking and screaming and forcefully vaccinate them to reach 80%. Idiots!
You were the same person who said that we would be in lock down forever and that masks were of no use to us..
We have waited this long, lets get shots in everybody’s arms that is willing and then we can discuss re-opening.
I for one do not want to go back into lock down because of community spread or worse a super spreader event.
Cayman needs to stay the course and do not follow the idiots to our North who believe the disease doesn’t even exist and don’t even want to take the vaccine.
I don’t remember saying any of those things but thanks for putting words in my mouth.
And I made it very clear everyone should have the opportunity to get vaccinated before we open the borders. But it makes far too much sense to plan now rather than ‘lets get shots in everybody’s arms that is willing and then we can discuss re-opening’. What value is there in waiting until then to have the discussion? It is needless delays that don’t provide any further safety.
The point is get everyone who wants the vaccine vaccinated and then open the borders. The young are not at any increased risk from this virus than they are many other viruses so waiting until they are vaccinated doesn’t actually improve safety for the island. If someone doesn’t want to get vaccinated that is their choice, but don’t let them hold the rest of the island hostage because of it. That isn’t democracy or leadership and I think we are sorely missing both right now.
Well, what happens when a couple kids get infected? The government will 100% shut down schools, kids sports, etc. And then we’re right back to square one. You can’t seriously push tourism $$$ ahead of the mental health of the children and the extreme sacrifice of parents/employers who will be forced to home school again.
When in Rome…
Still too long for visitors.
So? We are to risk lives so people can vaycay efficiently?
We could care less about visitors. No one wants to risk lockdown again for a few to frolic on our beaches and barely spend any money.
Any trip to your island costs more money then going to any other island or destination around. Barely spending money…you know that is a joke.
A lot of these repetitive, negative comments about visitors and the revolving status on the opening date is a real sour note for those who have visited year after year.
What a joke!
” the final deficit for central government was around $38 million, which is far less than the $168 million that his ministry had warned of in the early days of the pandemic last year.”
That is because government is funded by squeezing the life out of everyone and everything on island, not by tourism. What a joke the claims about what would happen if we did not build cruise berths are now proven to be. The kind of money we were going to spend on those berths should be spent on aggressively marketing our financial services industry, building a brand new statement courthouse, etc., because folks these are the things that pay our bills plain and simple.
This is what the CDC published in December 2020 regarding the increased risk of reducing quarantine from 14 days to 10 days in the context of the original strain of Covid. The new more communicable and more deadly strain increases that risks.
“Any option to shorten quarantine risks being less effective than the currently recommended 14-day quarantine. The variability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission observed to-date indicates that while a shorter quarantine substantially reduces secondary transmission risk, there may be settings (e.g., with high contact rates) where even a small risk of post-quarantine transmission could still result in substantial secondary clusters.”
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/scientific-brief-options-to-reduce-quarantine.html
Pre vaccine recommendation.
The CDC is still recommending against travel even for vaccinated people.
That’s how bad it is out there
And yet the cabal wants us to throw open our borders
I don’t believe this is referring to vaccinated people. The only people for whom quarantine would be reduced under this plan are fully vaccinated adults.
The CDC currently does not recommend quarantine for individuals traveling who have received both doses of the vaccine over 2 weeks previously. So your December data is out of date.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html
As of this week the CDC is recommending against travel even for vaccinated people because vaccinated people can still get and transmit the virus.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html
NOT more deadly and really questionable if truly more infectious. Get vaccinated, but still stay home. Bulls**t!
I was going to vote for this government based on their handling of the pandemic. That was about all that I could agree with. With this decision to put us all at risk by reducing the quarantine period I definitely will not!
WTF That is the DUMBEST reason to vote for someone….
Can’t fix stupid either.
This government did not handle the pandemic well. And they imported it here via cruise ship.
It is very unfortunate that the government has taken this gamble with our people’s health. They have offered no evidence that people who test negative on arrival and at 10 days cannot still infect our people. They seem to have forgotten that the incubation period can 14 days and even more in some cases.
You seem to have forgotten the 10 days is for vaccinated people.
And it’s proven the best day to PCR test is day 7 – 8 after exposure.
And most visitors won’t even be on the island after 7-8 days. A 10 day quarantine has never made sense.
Make sure people have the double jab- pretest and call it a day.
4:46pm:
Hello…..he’s giving everybody a chance to get the vaccine. Tests shouldn’t even be required at that stage nevermind a quarantine.
Excellent job Mr. Premier!
Mr Premier you and your Alliance will pay for this stupidity on April 14!
There is a very important article published in the British Medical Journal yesterday.
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n579
Basically it says that the UK strain that is now circulating in the UK, US and Jamaica is not only easier to transmit and catch, but also that it is more likely to kill. Sounds like the perfect time to reduce the quarantine period in order to give the virus a chance to spread in Cayman.
And those stll only receiving $1,000 month pension receive nothing extra and health insurance not paid. How to care for your elders!
Agree. Cayman as a British Overseas Territory, should have had a ‘national’ health insurance scheme years ago and rid of this American style health insurance makung these insurance companies and officials wealthy.
Pension schemes same.
All quite disgusting.
How can you have a National Health type scheme when you don’t pay tax?!
Yesterday the CDC indicated that travel by vaccinated people still poses risks to everyone. Today the government announces that they are reducing the quarantine period to 2/3 of the incubation period of the virus in order to encourage travel. Time to buy a few months supply of canned goods and toilet paper.
Don’t worry, this new policy is not going to encourage anyone to travel who wasn’t going to travel in the first place.
Hurricane season is not far off. You’ll be well prepared!
Given that vaccinated people can still carry and transmit the virus and that the incubation period for the virus is 14 days + it is not clear why reducing quarantine to 10 days makes any sense, but then again it is a political decision and not one based on science.
It’s being made because every Caymanian and resident is being given the chance to get vaccinated.
Places without huge vaccine rollout have been safely operating without quarantine for MONTHS!
Actually CDC guidelines are to quarantine for only 7 days after receiving a negative test result of which is required to enter the Cayman Islands