Just 261 first doses of vaccine given this week
(CNS): Just 261 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered since Monday, bringing the rate to 68%, and around 64% have completed the two-dose course. This means that Cayman is still short of the minimum target of between 70% and 80% of the population getting both doses before the borders can begin to open. At least 7,000 more people needed to be vaccinated but if the pace remains the same, it will take many weeks to reach anything close to herd immunity.
Meanwhile, there were no new positive cases of the coronavirus in the latest results. With no positive cases since last weekend, there are now just seven active cases of the virus among the 1,148 travellers currently in isolation, only one of whom is suffering symptoms. That person remains in hospital on the road to recovery.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
The vaccinated are much less likely to have symptoms. If you believe in asymptomatic transmission, which they all seem to, then it’s the vaccinated who present more risk of spreading. So if anything, the strictest rules should apply to those vaccinated, not unvaccinated.
Now what the vaxinators could do to get around this problem is admit that asymptomatic spread never existed to begin with. But then there is absolutely no logical or scientific reason for masks, social distancing, lockdowns
7000 more people. Never going to happen. They are now even talking about a booster. This whole thing is ridiculous now. Time to move on, live with Covid and open up.
No boosters needed. Research just released:
https://apple.news/AByW31v76SieFmOUaa4F3FA
The low vaccination uptake last week was in large part due to requiring everyone wanting a vaccine to go to the airport during work hours. Even then the airport is closed at lunch time. The vaccination clinics offered in the outer districts after work hours have been packed with people wanting to get vaccinated and because of that they are being reduced in frequency. The low vaccine rate is down to bad scheduling.
So true! ORIA should be open in the evenings.
Can we PLEASE add a couple more Cayman Airways flights? Please! For weeks, not a single seat available all summer for a return flight.
(Obviously 7,000 more people arent going to get vaccinated over the next three months).
Booking my flight for January now – have zero confidence that CIG will open up as long as Dr Lee is setting the rules, or that CIG will “overstretch “ Travel Cayman and the HSA testing teams by putting more flights on.
Especially 7000 people who don’t exist.
Watching the Euro Soccer tournament and seeing all the teams being sent out sepearately, not allowed to shake hands before the game.
They then spend the entire game slamming into eachother and they then hug and change shirts afterwards
Is it just me or do you get the sense that maybe things don’t add up?
We live in the times of collective madness
Or having the 2nd and 3rd in line to the Throne at soccer stadiums surrounded by 10’s of 000’s of folks…if this was an extinction event, do you really think you’d even see the Royal’s in public?!
Time for Roy to call another press conference.
and then flip-flop his message a couple of days later…..
When will cig be releasing an app that is verifiable in Europe, uk, us etc verifying we’ve had two doses of Pfizer, which will be needed to travel to most countries when we do open, similar to the NHS app in the UK and the EU app? Surely we are not expected to rely on the little hand written unlaminated HSA vaccine card forever and hope all airports allow us in when they open the border? We need something on our phones that airports can scan on arrival and departure, surely?
Expensive to use phone on roaming overseas.
You don’t need data to open an app
You need data to fetch results on app.
Me nah haff no credit.
We need to start thinking the virus as something people need to take personal responsibility on. Singapore will be the first country to stop testing for the virus. The vaccine is highly effective and if you haven’t gotten it yet, too bad. Open the island up, let’s go!
https://www.the-sun.com/news/3217277/singapore-stop-counting-covid-cases/
Greetings to all of you in the Cayman Bubble. Your country and I respect your decisions but the rest of the world has moved on and opened up. If you don’t want to get a free vaccine I think you need to live with the potential personal consequences.
99% of covid fatalities were unvaccinated individuals in the US. Get the jabs.
With known or unknown underlying conditions.
Which describes 99% of people after their late 50s….
time for legal challenge to cig’s restriction on travel for fully vaccinated people….
For all people!
Yes! Absolutely
I was thinking the same thing!
Any challenge would fail immediately. Data from Israel confirms what has long been assumed. Vaccinated persons can both contract and spread the virus.
BUT MOSTLY NOT DIE.
Most people are not dying from this, that’s the whole point you’re missing if you’re drinking the kool aid..most of us are not even getting sick
what’s going on?
And people wearing seatbelts can die or ge severely injured in car crashes. But their chances or avoiding injury or death are WAY better than not wearing one. But according to your logic, no one should wear a seatbelt when driving.
the next pact excuse will be that we need ?% people to to take booster shots……i’m not joking.
-no-plan-pact has no re-opening plan.
i will ask again:
does cayman think it can escape covid forever?
what do they think will happen considering we have 90% of at risk groups fully vaccinated?
@3:17 a.m. you are probably correct. At the slow uptake of vaccines, by the time 80% of the population is vaccinated (IF that happens), the next step will be for 80% of the population to get the booster. But there is hope that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will provide longer-lasting protection.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/health/coronavirus-vaccines-immunity.html
The vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna set off a persistent immune reaction in the body that may protect against the coronavirus for years, scientists reported on Monday.
The findings add to growing evidence that most people immunized with the mRNA vaccines may not need boosters, so long as the virus and its variants do not evolve much beyond their current forms — which is not guaranteed. People who recovered from Covid-19 before being vaccinated may not need boosters even if the virus does make a significant transformation.
“It’s a good sign for how durable our immunity is from this vaccine,” said Ali Ellebedy, an immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis who led the study, which was published in the journal Nature.
thanks for that…but no-plan-pact don’t do facts or science.
@10:38 – But they keep telling us they are following the “science.” Possibly they follow a different type of science. 🙄
PACT, listen up. My cat could do a better job of managing this reopening than you. And for pennies on the dollar of your undeserved salary. My dog, could have figured out how to verify vaccinations from the States that you cannot even consider. (Sadly the cat stole his laptop)
So with vaccine uptake now maxed out and covid endemic in the human population, exactly what is the exit strategy? The options are quarantine forever or accept that covid is going to rip through at some point whatever happens. Zero covid plans always lacked a credible end game.
There is no exit strategy ,this much is clear.
Open the border!
I wish the government would consider as a halfway measure dropping traveltime, leaving the quarantine rules in place, allowing more flights and just telling people there will be random checks during the quarantine period. If they are caught they face the consequences. I appreciate this brings some additional risks and most tourists will still be unwilling to visit until the quarantine is gone but it would allow residents some freedom of movement for both essential and less essential reasons.
On TripAdvisor Cayman board- now repeat tourists to the island are now telling each other what other Caribbean island to go to and why.
Not good. Border needs to open real soon!
That is good! Reap what you sow.
Here’s the Daily Mail’s list of direct flight from the UK destinations on Caribbean green list countries – notice who is missing?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/escape/article-9752187/Caribbean-holidays-joys-green-listed-Antigua-Barbados-Grenada-Turks-Caicos.html
Notice any that don’t have Covid spreading in their community?
Just:
Antigua
Barbados
Grenada
Plus Turks
Give your head a shake. Check the numbers on Worldometer or John Hopkins
I’m not surprised. No one would bother even considering a trip here when there’s no hope of an opening date. People are excited to travel again and Cayman is going to miss out.
People should be aware of the deceitful behavior regarding repatriation flights for July and August.
Government advised not to book ghost flights and wait for the repatriation flight schedule to be confirmed before booking.
But now they have created a limited schedule of Repatriation flights, and accommodated all those who booked the Ghost flights, and haven’t opened it for the public.
Caymanians who obeyed and waited for the repatriation flight schedule to be posted for August as per government advice, were now informed that there are no flights available!
This is a real issue for
many families who need to return home to Cayman ahead of the new school year.
Disgusting practice.
You listen to government? Idiot
The problem is not people booking the ghost flights, its the government not opening up more flights. Anywhere else where aviation is absolutely desperate for business they would expand flights to meet demand. Here we prefer to pay to keep our brand new aircraft sitting on the ground and our aircrew at home watching Netflicks. After all., its juts the taxpayer that foots the bill, right? Whilst not even having access to flights.
I think that at some point there will be people who will leave Cayman and unfortunately not return. At least for a long time. Maybe that’s what the government wants, not sure, but what a sad testimonial for a place that you reside. The fact that you have to leave in order to live freely. At least move about freely, because there’s no way to get out or into cayman without an incredible difficult series of misadventure
E-certificate to replace vaccination card
Weekly News reporter•July 02, 2021
An e-certificate which can be downloaded to a smartphone or tablet will be issued immediately to vaccinated residents, the health minister announced last week.
The new proof of jabs contains a QR code that can be used by third parties to independently verify its authenticity, and will replace the current vaccination cards.
Anyone who has received at least one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can apply for the online certificate if they have not already received a text or email notification.
To check on the status of certificates, update contact details or to speak to a support person, citizens can call the Covid-19 hotline on 232-9444 or 333-0911, or email vaccineid@gov.tc
“This Covid-19 vaccination e-certificate is just phase one,” Hon. Erwin Jay Saunders, Minister of Health and Human Services, said in a press release on Thursday, June 24.
“In phase two, which we are currently working on, inbound passengers to the TCI will be able to automatically upload their vaccination information to the TCI Assured Portal with just one click of a button.”
Over the next 12 months the Government plans to roll out a national ID smart card which will allow secure verification of a resident’s immunisation record by a third party, he added.
The Ministry of Health is working in collaboration with the Computer Information Technology Unit to launch the new online information programme.
“We’re committed to making Turks and Caicos Islanders’ lives better, and this initiative helps to achieve that,” Saunders said.
Last week Governor Nigel Dakin revealed that all 14,040 of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines from the United Kingdom’s third delivery were administered before their use by date.
A further 7,000 doses are set to arrive in an A400 aircraft from the UK next week.
The first batch of 9,750 Covid-19 vaccines arrived in the TCI on January 7, while the second batch containing 23,400 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived on February 24.
To book a vaccination appointment, residents can contact their healthcare provider, or access the free vaccinations through community events by the Primary Health Care Department.
Read carefully…this is NOT Cayman, sadly. It is TUrks & Caicos!
This E-certificate is for Turks & Caicos, NOT Cayman.
I think it would be a great idea if Cayman could provide a similar option, unfortunately at this time this article has nothing to do with Cayman.
Clearly cayman should and could learn a lot from TCI
The answer is not “World Class”! The average death rate of Covid is 1.8%. Cayman has tested 614 persons positive. If that reading is true, why haven’t 11 people died of Covid Dr. Lee? Given the Red Bay fiasco, and the several times travel Cayman has inadvertently messed up, that positive is “mild” and no harm to the public. Why does Dr. Lee has so much say? Especially given what we know about a certain trial?
It could be because the covid death rate is a lot lower than 1.8%.
I’m not a mad Trumpist or COVID denier, but in the developed world the death rate is now about 0.7% and still falling.
That’s for people aged 80 +
It’s a lot lower for everyone else. More risk of getting shot in Cayman
I used the 2020 death rate when there was essentially no vaccine.
👍👍👍
Residents need to start a campaign to not spend any money on staycations, taxis and locally owned restaurants for as long as we remain closed and put more pressure on the government to open up
Sure make it even worse. Makes absolutely no sense…smh…
Boycott Cayman!
Why would we punish local businesses by boycotting them in order to do some sort of sideways leveraging of the government? That makes NO sense whatsoever.
I will continue to support local businesses and hope they can survive and stay open.
I’ve boycotted taxis for over a decade. I’d rather push rusty nails into my eyeballs than hand money over to those cowboys.
Does CIG care about hotels, taxis, and restaurants? The border closure does not take money out of the pockets of our government officials. I fear that until they personally feel the loss they will never get a plan to reopen.
They have backed themselves into a corner; they don’t trust vaccine proof, they won’t allow other airlines in/out, they said herd immunity is at 80% vaccination, they said a possible soft reopening in mid-September…if they back down on any of these things they are effectively saying they were wrong and I don’t see PACT, our “transparent” government admitting they were wrong about anything.
Clearly everyone who wanted to get vaccinated has already done so. So, let’s stop the foolishness. PACT set a date to reopen. Those who choose not to get the jab know their risks, and prefer the chance of getting Covid to the safety of the vaccine. OPEN NOW!
I agree and why keep the borders closed any longer when 7000 people more aren’t going to take the vaccine. Can I safely say that if this doesn’t happen the borders are going to remain CLOSED permanently. This is being taken to EXTREME now
This is just getting silly now. Be responsible, get vaccinated and vaccinate your kids aged 12 upwards. If not you can live with the consequences, we are literally locked down on this island with no flights, and the cayman airways 3 or so flights a week to Miami lasts eats going for over 900 dollars return. Why… nothing to do with COVID now. Payton wanting expats to spend money here instead and cayman airways to make a killing. Most well off professional expats like me now refusing to pile more cash into staycations this year out of principle. There is absolutely no valid reason at all why British airways should not have 4 weekly return flights, why I can’t fly to the uk and holiday back h9me for a month or two over the summer having not been off island for two years, and why people vaccinated with AstraZeneca or Pfizer in us can’t come and visit here, as long as they quarantine at home here for five days ( although that is excessive too… look at Europe and up etc now where quarantine is not required for double jabbed). It is an absolute disgrace that we are still locked here,,. Don’t want a vaccine? Won’t get your kids vaccinated? Fine, but you should not be allowed to travel, and should have to wear a mask and socially distance whenever you leave your home in cayman.
I did three staycations this past year and refuse to do another one. It just makes it easier for government to delay opening even longer. If they want to see people in the restaurants and hotels, than they have to take a risk and open the border.
There are plenty of us struggling to pay for life so screw you and your three staycations!
That’s part of the reason people did staycations, went on boat trips, ordered delivery etc.
Tone deaf……….
privileged much? 3 staycations..I’m so sorry for you..please don’t take anymore..ugh!
Amazing that this gets dislikes. Absolute uneducated muppets to click red here. But then we all know caymans education system leads nowhere
Yes, amazing that people can have a different point of view eh? But you see that’s what education brings. Responsibility to make your own choices and decisions.
There are educated fools too..they are called anti-vaxxers..Choices and decisions can be made by anyone, educated or not.
It is too bad that we have to suffer for those who choose to be ignorant and believe conspiracy theories to make their decisions based on stupidity rather than science.
I say open up and let them face the music.We have given them a free opportunity to protect themselves and they have refused it even though the efficacy of the vaccine has far outweighed anything in their conspiracy theories. Leave the alone. You can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. When the Delta variant hits them they will be begging to get vaccinated. We cannot be held hostage by them anymore.
You sound like a broken record.
COVID didn’t close the border
9.55
Maybe dial back the dictatorial stance on telling people what to do with their own bodies, especially their own children. As a vaccinated person, freedom of choice is a fundamental right. Everyone can agree this whole thing has got silly. The government alone has created this situation by setting a vaccination goal rather than just setting an opening date once the vaccine was readily available.
Freedom of movement is also a human right.
How do I arrange for Canada to be prosecuted? It won’t allow me (as a non Canadian resident) to enter Canada! Bastards! Offending my basic right to free movement!
Or just maybe they are perfectly within their rights to control their borders as they see fit, and you should check your sense of entitlement at the door (which may hit you on the ass).
Canadians can enter Canada without having to quarantine if they’re vaccinated. Caymanians cannot fly back to Cayman even if they are able and willing to quarantine because the government is not allowing enough flights.
This is exactly it! The biggest problem is government restricting flights! Many of us would do the quarantine (although completely unnecessary as fully vaccinated months ago) but no flights available.
9:18..I love it when you anti-vaxxers use the claim that you are vaccinated. Tell that to someone else please..
Heaven forbid a vaccinated person believe in freedom of choice, freedom of movement and many more freedoms for that matter.
On the 22nd of July this year, Turks and Caicos will have been open to tourists for 12 months!
The first opening week that had 60% capacity. One year later we are still at 0% capacity!
Please, please add more flights. I didn’t book any ‘ghost flights’, but it seems that those that did were accommodated.
There is literally no open seats on any incoming or outgoing flights this summer, Cayman Air or BA. None. Zero.
Wayne, this is so cruel and despotic. I know you don’t care and have falsely said you would be transparent and open (I voted for you but never again), but why do I need to win a lottery for a simple flight?
Wayne, you are a silent coward afraid to make practical decisions, and your inexperienced cabinet is showing.
Island Air got bought out, if I wanted to arrange a small charter to get off island to fly initially to Miami or Houston, who do I call? Asking the CNS community for kind advice/help as need to see my elderly mother one last time in Canada this summer and have no options to fly out. 😀. Is there an entity on island that can arrange this and deal the government logistics? Not worried about the cost in these circumstances.
(Please, no trolls but will welcome advice. I’m out of options and am exhausted. Thanks in advance.).
Did you see this https://caymannewsservice.com/2021/06/father-organises-summer-flights-to-canada/?fbclid=IwAR1BH0mUQjJ_mTP2Q49eTeTYcaunQbndgQoHr8XRNa5KFq_y0JyajjN5Noc
Sounds like you really need that vacation..ESSENTIAL TRAVEL ONLY!
The whole reason the flights are all sold out was simply because nobody followed the rules put in place and Travel Cayman did not do any work to vett who was travelling. Now the people that really need to travel for ESSENTIAL reasons cannot get a seat on any flight.
Get 160 people together and charter Cayman Airways if you really need to get off island that bad.
There are some truly evil people on here. What happened in your life to make you completely lack empathy?
Despicable deluded comment. It shouldn’t be essential travel only… I haven’t left this little rock for 2 years, I am double jabbed, no fair reason I shouldn’t have access to a reasonably airily priced flight to the us or uk this summer,
Aren’t you the fool
2 years! I hadn’t left for 7.
Then I left and never came back. It’s yours. Keep it.
Who me? Thank you very much!
Why is it essential travel only? We are locked up here waiting for a bunch of lunatics to finally choose to get vaccinated but we can’t choose to travel.
The world is moving on and now that people are vaccinated, they want to get on with their lives the best way they can given these ridiculous restrictions. There is no opening plan and people aren’t going to wait forever.
The world has Covid. We do not. Any travel puts us at risk. Any unnecessary travel puts us at unnecessary risk. It really is not that hard to understand.
We have the quarantine so there isn’t much risk. We are even quarantining vaccinated people. Covid will be around for years so we have to adapt to it. Keeping the borders closed indefinitely is not plausible.
The World had COVID and Cayman has not. The World now has a new coronavirus type flu and Cayman has yet to encounter the original pandemic. The World is exploding in wealth and prosperity while Cayman has stagnated at best. Good luck funding the early withdrawn pensions, unemployed stipends and new found debt. Easy to understand.
July 1 new rules came into effect stating ESSENTIAL travel would be classed as medical and Educational and I see no reasons that outbound flights from that date thru September should be FULL. No way and the hypocrisy that Govt going on with needs to CEASE. Open the borders.
I am studying probability at the moment. So I need to go to Vegas to see a practical application of the theory.
There is a Facebook group called CCC Flight Community – many people organising Cayman/Canada charter flights.
Wayne is Lodge. He follows Roper’s instructions. Perhaps you are barking up the wrong tree?
There is no way Wayne is going to add more flights as Travel Cayman does not have the ability or he capability to monitor more quarantined travelers. If you allow American, Delta etc. to start flights and say they have 150 people per flight TC would be overwhelmed in a week. Until CIG starts trusting the vaccine that they want every to have the plan will continue be, No Plan. If you want to get to Canada get on the charter flight that’s being organized.
They aren’t going to add more flights because they want people here spending money in the restaurants and stores. I’m sure most returning travellers are vaccinated so they are monitoring a lot of people for half the time they were previously.
ummm. Every flight that leaves here will be full with people arriving.
They basically said as much in the last briefing when they asked people do staycations again this year. The restaurants and opposition also mentioned this when they criticized the five day quarantine. But that doesn’t change much when they haven’t added any flights anyway.
The June vaccine schedule which I saw when they knew we had a new shipment coming mid month had the last week of June slated for second dosses only.
It’s just a waste of money now operating the airport vaccination facility. It was great! But it’s over.
Time to load a van and go park at spots where people are and catch a few impulse people.
Or get it in the hands of the doctors, the people on the fence now are being influenced by the “no date no shot” crowd and want to get it down as their own choice. In private.
The Cayman Islands is now taking tourist reservations for the 2024 Holiday Season!
*assuming no variants of COVID-19 exist or we are not up to COVID-20
I’ve read a lot of comments on CNS blaming construction workers and Jamaicans but in my personal experience a large number of Caymanians refuse to be vaccinated and will never be vaccinated and we will have to live with this.
Yep lots of them particularly from West Bay and Cayman Brac. One of the big reasons we can’t get out of this mess.
I heard some religious fanatic purporting to be a converted druggie turned lawyer from West Bay, spewing conspiracy theories on the Radio Cayman Talk show the other day. God will take care of us but he wants us to take care of ourselves too. The funny thing was she never even bothered using the religious line to address it but instead resorted to the experimental vaccine foolishness.. These are going to be the first ones to catch covid when we open up.
Don’t worry, in her eyes 5 years from now it will still be “experimental” lol.
Ridiculous!! Open the border to all who are vaccinated to travel in or out. Stop this foolishness with quarantine, open up and stop the businesses from going under.
Open the border Panton!!!!!
It’s pretty simple. No border opening date, no vaccine.
I’m vaccinated, but what you biased people need to understand is 6.29’s logic is sound. It’s the least risk given we are Covid free! Conversely, set an opening date and many more will get vaccinated because the risk changes! It’s really very simple logic!
Not true, I am not vaccinated because it is a bogus agenda. Covid is extremely treatable and preventable. There are cheap drugs like ivermectin, but nobody is pushing that. In the Phillippines it has been a great success. I don’t care if the borders open, I ‘ ‘chose’ not to listen to the political agenda driven by economics and willing to take my chances, I don’t want my DNA instructed by Mrna chemicals, good hygiene is all you need.
Someone needs to show Panton these comments so he can see that these freaks are never going to change their mind. Just open up already.
And therein lies the problem. Someone does not agree with you label them freaks.
My apologies, there are those who feel no matter what, the risk of taking the vaccine is greater than not. It’s none of my businesses why 10:15 chooses this route. If 32% of the population thinks this way, then they have no objections to opening up. Indeed, they already have their remedies. So Mr. Panton, we are at 100% for the adult population.
You are an idiot, if you and the other anti-vaxxers had taken your vaccine we would be out of this mess now.
False!
This is a complete joke!
It is more and more obvious those that WANTED to be protected from the virus have gotten the vaccine. Those who CHOSE not, simply do not want it.
We cannot be locked down from the rest of the world just because people CHOOSE not to be vaccinated!!
The world is moving on, and we are stuck in this fake bubble! Cost of living is rising, businesses are closing down and some are just making it through. This will not last much longer. The people are suffering – mentally and financially.
At this point, we are all being held hostages!
PACT – what the hell are you afraid of?
*Enough is enough*
There is obviously very little interest in getting this done voluntarily.
Government must accelerate the re-opening of the island, or at least daily flights to provide those of us responsible Caymanians and residents who taken the vaccine to resume commerce, travel and the road to recovery.
We can no longer let the vaxx reluctant crowd to hold us hostage.
The vaccine doesn’t stop you from catching COVID. But even if you did catch it, there’s more chance of dying from a gun or car crash
1:02am:
You’re technically right but very very very few vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna will catch it or spread it.
Only needs one.
Not a concern if everyone that can be is vaccinated. That’s the whole point.
8:30am Get over the paranoia! The vast vast vast majority of our vulnerable people have had the vaccine.