COVID vaccination rate inches up to 66%
(CNS): With another 269 people getting a first shot of the COVID-19 vaccination over the last day, the current rate of those having at least one dose has risen to 66%, while those who have had both does is now at 56%, which is still 14% short of the government’s minimum target before consideration will be giving to reopening the borders. There are now just two weeks left before the deadline for a first dose, as the remaining Pfizer vaccines all expire on 30 June. Individuals now needing their second dose of the limited AstraZeneca vaccine can access the shot on Saturday at the ORIA Clinic
Those who received their first dose overseas may not be guaranteed a second dose due to a very limited supply of this vaccine.
Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Lee reported three more positive COVID-19 test results in travellers over the last day. There are currently 15 active cases of the virus among the 956 people in home isolation and government quarantine with two of the individuals suffering coronavirus symptoms.
See the vaccine schedule on the HSA website here.
For more information on vaccines contact the HSA Communications team at
communications@hsa.kySee here for more information on securely verifiable vaccination records.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
Fact is economically disadvantages if citizens are leaving for summer. A lot of money leaving that could be spent here. Fact: the flights that were cancelled by BA were never approved by gov. Also fact: there is no health threat with vaccinated citizens leaving and come back absolving quarantine. Also fact lots of vaccined citizens having to pay the prize for idiots not going to get their free jab. Fact: Covid is not a danger to kids. Fact: the biontech vaccine is expiring. In order to be safe or travel you will have to accept Astra Zeneca vaccine. Or wait a long time Also Fact: the world is opening up and Cayman will behave to do the same very soon. Time to wake up.
You people on here demanding to open the Borders. If you are vaccinated why don’t you just hop a flight?! The Borders are open for you to do that you know!
The borders are not open. We can’t fly in. Now, the quarantine may be lowered to 5 days. How does that work when we only have 7 days off from work? Still ridiculous for vaccinated people. No need for any vaccinated person to quarantine at all. Still won’t be able to see family and friends. Family too old to travel out.
This is all political now! The new government wants to have zero responsibility and have no blood on their hands! Do you really think at 70% they are goin to open the boarders… think again! They are in
Absolute no rush to open these boarders.
and I thank them for that approach to opening both borders and boarders.
Frankly, the borders should remain closed until all the greed mongerers, foreign and domestic, learn all their necessary lessons and take every last one of their beatings and fines.
Back-to-greed seems to be the real motive here, not health and well-being.
More foreign work permits extracting resources out and less local jobs with living wages to keep resources here.
What happens if we get to 69.99%?
What happened to our own Cayman vaccine promoted by a prominent local doctor who was looking for locals to try it out on?.
Looks like Government had heard the pleas re. the BA flights and have added more. Maybe they will hear the pleas to open the borders come July!
What exactly was the point of getting vaccinated during the last few months if the country is not going to open for commercial flights for vaccinated residents to freely go and return until the Government receives and calculates the numbers gathered in the National Census which will take us into next year and the possibility we will need a booster shot. Makes no sense now that I took the vaccine since we have no local transmission and with no plan to open where exactly am I going to catch it?
I’m renouncing my vaccinated status.
You wont. And you wont when we open for vaccinated people.
The irony is that being vaccinated does not make you immune nor stop you from catching the virus. It also does not prevent transmission, if you do catch it. It does reduce the chance of that happening and reduces serious symptoms but vaccinated people still need to be cautious and not falsely believe that you are immune. You are not immune.
Look at every nation that has a high vaccination rate and notice the hugh drop in Covid cases and hospitalization.
The vaccines are not a perfect solution, but it is really the best we can get at this point.
I’d like to offer my condolences to the family of Lisa Shaw, the BBC reporter aged 44 having just taken the AZ “vaccine”.
Just to provide a reference.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/27/bbc-presenter-lisa-shaw-died-of-blood-clot-after-astrazeneca-jab-family-says
Finally, the mainstream media blackout of vaccine problems is crumbling under an avalanche of truth. Truth can NEVER be suppressed. Haven’t you heard?
Just when you think you have killed it, it rises again.
Tell the truth and do not lie.
1 in 5 million. Do grow up.
Understanding of rare but very serious Covid effects in children is increasing. That needs to be factored into opening plans given that children under 12 will not likely be vaccinated.
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200514/covid19-may-trigger-rare-complication-in-children
Children – who gives a @#$% – I want my holidays!
But you were once a Ch…nevermind
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/highrisk/children.htm
“Each year, millions of children get sick with seasonal flu; thousands of children are hospitalized, and some children die from flu. Children commonly need medical care because of flu, especially children younger than 5 years old.”
I guess we should calculate this into the opening as well. I don’t want kids killed on my behalf….
Why the hell would people thumb down a comment encouraging caution when it comes to our children?
Some of you are bloody well insane.
Educated people.
They probably don’t even like kids except for using them as human shields and scapegoats to mask their irrational terror of the world.
You are citing a May 2020 article. Thinking (and data) has progressed since then.
Do you seriously think the money-making business community is listening to your pleas? They are crying for the borders to open. With them, its all about the dollars – a hell with our children!
You posted an article that is a year old! You must work for the government!
CNN is reporting that up to 3/4 of new UK cases involve the highly contagious Indian variant.
“Up to three quarters of all newly diagnosed Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom are attributed to the variant first identified in India, Britain’s health minister Matt Hancock said at a news conference on Monday.
“The latest estimates are that more than half and potentially as many as three-quarters of all new cases are now of this variant,” Hancock said. “As we set out our road map we always expected cases to rise, we must remain vigilant.”
NDTV Indian News Channel : “The Government of India has issued an advisory to all social media platforms to remove any content that names, refers to or implies the Indian Variant of the Corona Virus, saying that there is no such variant that has been cited by The WHO, the B1617 which has been called the Indian Variant”.
The vaccine also works against the new variants.
2:34 there is no proof of that
That is a lie.
Read this and get a life
https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210525/pfizer-astrazeneca-vaccines-indian-variant-study
In other words, the untrustworthy British government is considering another lockdown.
That is expected, as the Indian variant has a transmission advantage over the UK strain. In the US, the UK strain is now dominant over the wild strain.
Fortunately, lab studies indicate the mRNA and Astra vaccines are highly protective against the Indian strain, as does preliminary real-world data.
Get JABBED!
I recall that back in December Dr. Lee a statement that starting genome sequencing was in the works. Has anyone heard any more about that for Cayman. I know that Bermuda has been doing variant specific testing rapid testing in Bermuda since March.
Does Cayman have access to the advanced technology Bermuda is using to identify which variants are being imported by travelers? That would seem to be a good idea given the rapid spread of the Indian variant in the UK and elsewhere.
https://www.gov.bm/articles/covid-19-update-science-advisor-bermuda-government-dr-carika-weldon-mrsb-fibms-remarks-2
He made a remark some time ago that the most common variant was the UK one (which I think we all expected given the frequent flights between the mother country). Would be nice to know if they have still kept up with this and if they are finding other variants in our positive cases…CNS maybe you could inquire?
The frequent flights from the mother country are the issue? The 2 a month rather than the 8 a month to the US alone plus the Jamaica and Honduran flights by CAL?
Freedom of movement is currently being curtailed due to insufficient and sold out “Repatriation flights”.
The island must reopen ASAP by allowing in commercial flights, assuring Caymanians their rightly deserved freedoms to travel without restriction.
Our Borders were closed last March due a public health emergency which we have dealt with very effectively under our CMO Dr. Lee via vaccination program, now that we are approaching 70 percent of the total population vaccinated, it is time to announce and prepare for a full reopening for vaccinated persons!
Freedom of movement, mobility rights, or the right to travel is a human rights concept encompassing the right of individuals to travel from place to place within the territory of a country, and to leave the country and return to it.
Such a right is provided in the constitutions of numerous states, and in documents reflecting norms of international law.
For example, Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.”
“Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
Agreed that we need to re-open but we need the current government to provide a detailed plan as to how they will resource and implement the medical services necessary to deal with the inevitable surge that will result.
Although the majority of our population will be vaccinated and will be asymptomatic to Covid-19 when it returns and is spread within our community, there will be numbers that will be affected and a plan is needed (including sufficient testing facilities, hospital beds and oxygen) BEFORE this occurs.
We need to see that plan before the reopening.
what surge?….the most at risk have been vaccinated…anybody who get(through their own ignorance) will suffer mild symptoms if any…
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,
Nice idea but the UN declaration is aspirational not enforceable and in any event
“Article 12(3) of the ICCPR allows restrictions on the right to freedom of movement for reasons of public health and national emergency.
In case it has slipped your attention, we are in a pandemic.
You carefully avoided the sections in virtually every binding piece of legislation on the entire planet where it states that freedom of movement is not absolute can be limited by valid public health requirements – including pandemics.
Once the majority of persons are vaccinated it is the opinion of our medical community that it is safe to reopen with limited quarantine.
At this point it is fear that is driving policy.
Why are there no commercial flights? Why cancel the few scheduled flights to the UK? Public health heh?
2:28 yes public health you dipshit. The UK is where most of out positives are coming from fool
You would be better served by making comments without name calling, it would make you feel better about yourself.
Public Health is preserved when the majority of willing Caymanians have protected themselves with a highly effective vaccine and incoming travelers continue to be tested.
Those that want to curtail human rights due to needless fear will come to regret it in the course of history.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
These were not scheduled flights..they were “ghost flights.” American is doing the same thing right now and have been doing since we locked down. BA is a commercial airline they can choose to come or not. They are asked by the Governor to operate an air bridge for essential services and for movement of our students.
Further, the Governor plainly told you and others who never listen, not to book those flights but you always know better. Well, suck it up now buttercup. Next time, follow instructions
Of course, Cayman isn’t a signatory, and we aren’t currently in breach of either aspect of Article 13 – the first doesn’t apply at all, and the second is a matter of booking sufficiently far ahead – you are free to do it as long as you can book a flight.
But if you want to be aspirational lets talk about labor rights under Article 23, access to free primary education under Article 26 and of course the right to marry under Article 16. Or do you think its not really universal at all – you get to pick and choose which human rights in the declaration you get to apply?
Not happening anytime soon, nice idea’s & quasi-laws though.
I think you can have freedom of movement without a commercial flight..Cayman Airways flies twice a week to Miami from there you can go anywhere you want in the covid infected world..There are numerous other options as well. Nobody is stopping you from leaving or are you like one of the other wanting BA to come and go on the days you want to travel and at the lowest price.
Have you checked the incoming Miami flights? sold out for weeks… we need daily airlift.
Quarantine reduced to 3 days for vaccinated persons and we Caymanians can rejoin the free world.
We are a resilient people and have never allowed fear to stifle us.
will keep asking the same questions:
what happens if we reach the impossible ever changing target?…cig has never said what would happen.
what happens when we don’t reach the target?
why are we denying vaccinated people freedom of travel?
is cayman trying to stay covid and virus free forever?
we have protected our at risk groups and health service and have one of the highest vaccinations rates in the world….what is cayman afraid of?
will wait for answers.
Great questions!
What is Cayman afraid of? Jump off a 10 story building what are you afraid of?
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children aged 2 and up should wear masks in communities in which Covid exists or is a risk. Are people advocating for opening the borders without restriction suggesting that children should resume wearing masks in Cayman so that tourists can have a vacation?
https://services.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2021/children-ages-2-and-up-who-arent-fully-vaccinated-should-continue-to-wear-face-masks/
Opening the borders is about way more than tourism. Fully vaccinated CAYMANIANS are being affected negatively by this seemingly never-ending border closure.
I do think it should only be opened to fully vaccinated travelers not just any person that wants to come.
It is a requirement for Work Permit Holders in Turks & Caicos to be vaccinated. Might be work strong consideration here in Cayman.
Honestly I don’t know any work permit holder who isn’t fully vaccinated. I know a lot of Caymaniand who haven’t got first jab.
I think you will find that vaccine acceptance is not wide in the lower paying work permit categories.
While not a statistically significant number, are we checking with returning students who have been vaccinated overseas and adding them to our total of vaccinated residents?
Sadly, no because that wouldn’t support the agenda for staying locked down. I bet it’s a more significant number returning vaccinated than many think. It’s NOT at all difficult for students in the US to get it.
Do we know if students who are returning for the summer, who were vaccinated overseas while at school, are being counted and added to our vaccination total? While likely not a statistically relevant number, every single person counts as we try to hit 70%.
While not a statistically significant number, are we checking with returning students who have been vaccinated overseas and adding them to our total of vaccinated residents?
So if we don’t reach the PACT target goal of 70% second doses…we stay closed forever? Please …is there any kind of plan for the future??
Exactly. Why is it that all the other OTs have come up with plans and are now instituting them? All of them seeming to have dropped the quarantine for vaccinated people. Even though they all have lower vaccination rates than us. And we have been left with nothing. Panton needs to account for this.
70% was only set as the likely herd immunity point when the original r0 was calculated. With mutations the r0 of various strains has increased, and the % immunity required for herd immunity has therefore increased and is now closer to 90%. Further, since the vaccines do not appear to protect from infection or transmission, but rather illness, the whole issue of herd immunity is thrown on its head – and is in any event an irrelevance of tourists are allowed to come in without quarantine.
It is highly unlikely that vaccinated people will spread covid. That is why the CDC has said that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks.
Watch the US enjoy life on this major holiday weekend and then watch how the covid case numbers are not affected and continue to plummet. Life is moving along as everyone in Cayman remains locked away. The vaccine works!
10:13 no masks won’t be able to fly in Cayman. You can bet those will be coming back
And yet the CDC today reports 10,000 cases of Covid in vaccinated people…
They are (for the most part) not sick, but they have it, and can transmit it.
You forgot to mention that was of a 101 million vaccinated base i.e. 1 in 10000 of being infected.
And that’s before you consider the chances of them being able to transmit it, since the viral loads tend to be massively lower. To put that in context, in the US you are 4 times more likely to die from choking on food than you are to catch Covid once vaccinated. Watch out for those burgers bobo. .
The CDC has said? You mean the same CDC that said it is relying on an honor system for Americans be honest about whether or not they are vaccinated? And, if not to behave and wear their masks? Yeah, I really trust that!
In any event it is irrelevant here. Be reminded that these Islands are British Overseas Territories.
so is that why the rest of the world with similar vaccination rates are opening up????
They already have Covid in their communities. We do not. Spot the difference?
We’re vaccinated. Spot the difference?
Well, the NHS, and CDC disagree, along with many other health and safety experts. The data is in: the tiny chance of recurring transmission in fully-vaccinated is so tiny that it’s not even clinically important to worry about. The economy and human mental health should far outweigh any lingering oppressive policy precautions in regards to the fully vaccinated. Which should signal to everyone not already vaccinated to get on with it.
Not clinically important in communities that already have Covid in circulation…
Your logic means we will never re-open. Get real.
You need serious help.
No plan Pact has no plan. Get used to it.
No opening date, no vaccine.
No vaccine, no opening date.
8.23am – If you’re willing to get the vaccine if we open up, just get it now and stop being such a prick!
ESO estimate of population 0-14 in 2019 was 10,652
Since all of this is just estimates lets subtract that number from the 65,000 as representing the current population that is 0-15.
So we have 42,900 people (66% of 65K) that have had a 1st shot out of 54,358 eligible.
In other words 78.9% and this will tick up slightly in coming days.
It would be nice to know what the PACT thinks about all this and what if any plans they may or may not have. But we basically get crickets
Children can succumb to and transmit Covid, hence the number of children in the population cannot be subtracted from the total population in order to determine the percentage vaccination rate necessary to limit Covid spread.
Children are at such a low risk of succumbing to covid that the WHO asked that they not even be vaccinated. I’d be more worried about having kids out on these roads.
stop talking sense.
WHO isn’t saying they shouldn’t ever be vaccinated – they’re saying it would be immoral to vaccinate children before vaccinating at-risk demographics in countries with low vaccine access.
Yes because they are not at-risk….
Because they are at lower risk, not no risk. Further, WHO has not stated they shouldn’t ever be vaccinated, which is what the original post appears to state. Accuracy would entail the request is it be delayed, is all.
Children can succumb to explosive diarrhea, what’s your point?
You can travel as much as you want. Just like expats cannot fly in and garbage a job – they must go through a permitting procedure – so too will travelers have to endure some protocols – ie quarantine. You can absolutely travel if you could just get past the selfish attitude that you don’t want to be inconvenienced by protective actions being taken to save lives here.
In answer to what we are afraid of – the answer is death. Yes we will all suffer it one day but no need to rush it along by letting selfish little imps force their over eager ways on us. Bide your time, freedom with come when caution has been fully exercised to ensure minimal impact.
And so apparently can your mouth….
The first point is we can’t get to 70% with the available vaccine and the numbers are actually pretty damn good for the eligible population.
Assuming shots for younger people are approved and available we can likely expect an 80%+ uptake in short order.
The second more important point is that somehow the PACT is even worse at communication than the PPM “Unity” Gov’t was. It is hard to imagine a worse approach than they have taken.
Other gov’t around the world are setting targets and letting business leaders and the citizenry at large know what can be expected.
We need to start calling them the PAC as there is little to no transparency.
I will give them a few more months on the other letters.
Or if you use the same numbers, if CIG wants 70-80% of the total population to be vaccinated, that actually amounts to between 84% and 96% of the eligible population. Passing lightly over the fact that we don’t have enough vaccine to even get to the lower end of that. No wonder there’s crickets.
Any intelligent person can tell from the past that Cayman will not be opening until the rest of the world is free of Covid. Not any time soon. It will be a financial wreck way before then but they have not started on a plan to fix that while not being open for business. They have hit a wall. Prepare for disappointment.
I’d prefer to be poor and alive, then less poor and dead from covid or long-term sick as a result of catching it. I’m happy for the island to stay closed so we can all enjoy a normal life – a long and healthy life.
You could just get vaccinated…. It’s safe and effective. And free.
7:21
Neither has been proven as it’s too soon to tell, peaches
So they think they are going to have to throw vaccine away and in the next breath saying to another group you may not get one…. only in Cayman
That was in reference to AstraZeneca not Pfizer. They only ever had a small number of AZ vaccines so it makes sense that they’d be saved for those that got 1st shot in Cayman.
What is being done to get Cayman vaccinations recognised by the UK and other countries? Will we be able to register our vaccinations with the NHS-APP/database so that we can fly to the UK and other countries without quarantine?
How many of the travelers arriving in Cayman are residents who have been fully vaccinated in Cayman and how many of them are testing positive on arrival, at 10 days and at 14 days? If none of the fully vaccinated local people are testing positive then perhaps we could lessen quarantine? The other thing to do is require everyone flying out who intends to return to be vaccinated as a condition of boarding. That would also reduce the incidence of ‘positives’ and would make it more likely that Cayman will be ‘green lighted’ by the UK and other countries.
66% of a made up number of which 20.9% are ineligible.
When is the border reopening? Set the date!!
Set the date! Set the date! Set the date! Set the date! Set the date! Set the date! Set the date! Set the date! Set the date! Set the date!!!!!
We need to open up as the BVI has. No quarantine for the vaccinated who test negative before departure and upon landing.
We would need 45,550 first doses to reach 70% of 65,000.
To reach that, we would need 2,710 more first doses (as we are at 42,790 today). We don’t have 2,710 first doses left. I think we are at slightly less than 2,000.
So we will probably wind up at 67% (of an arbitrary 65,000 number). But that doesnt matter. We will likely use up all remaining vaccines, as we would have to average about 100 a day over 14 remaining days.
Agreed, I don’t know if this wording comes from a HSA press release, but it is not the best.
It would be interesting to know the estimated number of people out of the 65,000 population guess that are under 16 and ineligible for the shot. Then we could have an estimate of the % vaccinated among the eligible population.
As you say it has always been mathematically impossible to reach the 70% level with the supply available.
See above. Open the borders.