Breachers caught playing dominoes, says CoP

| 09/09/2021 | 82 Comments
Cayman News Service
Police Commissioner Derek Byrne at Thursday’s press briefing

(CNS): With the news of more than 50 people breaching isolation protocols in August, Commissioner of Police David Byrne has reminded people of the dangers of COVID-19, noting that most of these cases involved residents going to visit travellers rather than the travellers leaving their place of quarantine.

He said his officers had found people in the yards of those in quarantine and isolation playing dominoes with them, or people chatting and drinking across fences and gardens, because the lack of community transmission, until today, has caused people to drop their guard.

“Generally, from a policing perspective, what we are seeing is an overly relaxed approach to the threat and risk of harm in the community from COVID by persons who are resident… here in the Cayman Islands,” he said. “That is predominantly breaching regulations… to deliver goods and remaining there for longer than is permitted, and in some occasions we are seeing people engaging in drinking, playing dominoes…”

The CoP said that while rules were being broken, those in isolation were not leaving their place of quarantine or interfering with the geo-tags, as he outlined the rules again. However, he raised concerns about those that were breaching the regulations by passing items to people in the community while still in quarantine, given the risks.

He said for 18 months there had been excellent results but “if we do not get it right” there is still a risk for the community.

The CoP said two people charged with breaching quarantine were expected to appear in court next week and other files had been passed to the director of public prosecutions. He said that officers were still investigating other reports.

Byrne also reminded everyone of the stiff penalties currently on the books for those convicted of breaching the rules, which includes a whopping $10,000 fine or six months behind bars.


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Category: Crime, Police

Comments (82)

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  1. Caymanian says:

    @9:44
    Stop! Do not blame only the Jamaicans!
    It’s not only Jamaicans bringing in COVID…..
    ALL FOREIGN NATIONALITIES FROM OTHER COUNTRIES are also bringing it in.
    It is only because of this disturbing incident that was recognized by the CBC that this incident was reported! Thank you CBC!
    All individuals (including Caymanians) should STILL BE TESTED ON ARRIVAL as many are just paying doctors for a negative COVID -19 test. MONEY TALKS, Bull$&$/ walks!
    And the quarantine period should be 14 days NOT be reduced to 5-10 days regardless of vaccinated or not.
    GEO TRACKING SHOULD NEVER STOP (and be adhered to strictly) as obviously “trusting” individuals to adhere to the the rules are obviously NOT going to work…. AND those who visit them (the the quarantine individuals) should also be charged too not only the quarantined (they know the rules and still obviously break the rules….repeat!
    We have community spread now with no recent travel by individuals. How???

    We may not be able to close our country down forever but stricter rules and regulations need to be placed (or continued) with entry into our country. Regards of nationality.

    $10,000 upfront or 6mths in prison. Period!

    Btw (By the way) stop allowing so many individuals from going over to the Brac (for “partying”) and Little Cayman as they may bring in COVID-19 too. Limit and monitor these individuals ( eg. they max 40-50 people) too as a very large crowd go over just to “party” sometimes 3 jet flights for those weekend parties I understand)
    The POLICE need to step up and visit these parties SEVERAL times a night, stop these individuals from having big parties, and stop their slackness of just giving out tickets for speeding, lack of insurance etc.

    Faith Hospital can only handle so many patients and Little would have to send individuals to GC if they get sick (in which contact tracing for both of our smaller Islands will be harder, yes harder, to trace. THEY cannot handle COVID-19 cases there)

    Pray (and continuously) pray for our Islands.

    AND, remember that BRAC has many older individuals that are more susceptible to catching it.

    I am a Caymanian by birth and raised here! Stating that so people won’t think I’m anything else (and I am not married nor involved in any foreigner so don’t think I’m just being petty.

    Also, quickly mandate vaccination for all who are on work permits…..what’s the hold up on that??

    Act quicker! We are already expecting a lock down coming and much more community spread!

    Stay safe Cayman. Wear masks (even if the establishment isn’t (yet) making it mandatory, face Shields, sanitizer always in hand and limit shopping to once a week).

    Signed
    A genuine & very concerned Caymanian!

    • Anonymous says:

      I think you misunderstood. This person did not say “Jamaicans”. They mentioned flights “from Jamaica”. That could be any nationality…..given the COVID situation is pretty bad over there, I see their point. No harm done :).

      Stay safe all!!

  2. Anonymous says:

    Breachers caught red-handed by police should be able to be automatically ticketed with no need to wait for court. Legislation should have been written that it is $10000 AND 2 years…..no questions asked, no court appearance, and no room for reduced fines/terms.

    If it’s a breach reported but not witnessed by police, then have a trial.

  3. Anonymous says:

    stop flying to Jamaica
    stop importing criminals
    stop importing uneducated drivers

  4. Anonymous says:

    funny how the lack of meaningful prosecution for these breaches resulted in… wait for… MORE BREACHES!

  5. Anonymous says:

    Now that Jamaica is on the UK red list, all passengers from Jamaica should be placed in a secure hotel quarantine on their arrival in the Cayman Islands – as they would be in the UK.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Expats always ruining quarantine by playing dominos with people….. oh wait.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Has the government told the wirus that the incubation period is now reduced to five days?

  8. anonymous says:

    Lmfaoooo. Cayman is not a real place

  9. Anonymous says:

    Why bother prosecuting? In a few weeks it will transmit anyway with quarantine gone. We just learned that it is now possible to board a plane covid positive too. Might as well let it in and kill who it wants to kill because we are throwing our defence away thanks to the government.

  10. Anonymous says:

    The bigger issue… this is why you get vaccinated. It is unclear at this point how this elderly woman got the virus. was she visiting someone in quarantine? Was her son ‘playing dominoes’ with someone in quarantine? Was her neighbour delivering groceries to someone? It doesn’t really matter because eventually this was going to happen. I’ll bet there are several unvaccinated players in this saga; the elderly woman should have been vaccinated, but maybe her health didn’t allow it.
    Bottom line: YOU get the vaccine to protect others as well as yourself. YOU get the vaccine to help stop the spread through what seems like harmless contact with a friend in quarantine. YOU get the vaccine so you don’t spread it to friends and family. Get the shot to protect your loved ones.

    • Anonymous says:

      What good is it to get a vaccine that doesn’t prevent catching Coviid-19 or spreading it, sounds pretty stupid to me.

      • Anonymous says:

        It reduces your chance of dying. I like not dying.

      • Anonymous says:

        What good is it posting stupid, fatuous comments online?

      • Anonymous says:

        The vaccines were not intended to eliminate the possibility of infection/transmission, though it does turn out you are several times (5x-10x) less likely to be infected if you are vaccinated. The true purpose is to prevent you from dying or having a serious medical problem when you do get infected. They are highly effective at that (up to 70x less likely to end up dead).

        That’s why in the U.S., you see many vaccinated people get infected, but nearly everyone in hospital is unvaccinated and the relatively few vaccinated people in the hospital are usually in some higher risk group.

    • Anonymous says:

      They said both persons are fully vaccinated and doing well. The most likely reason an old person with underlying issues is doing well is because she’s vaccinated!!

  11. Anonymous says:

    More Karen calls to the manager than actual breaches then.

    • Anonymous says:

      Can you write understandably? What is a Karen call and who’s the manager? Try to make some sense when you write something PLEASE spare us

  12. Anonymous says:

    Why are these people arrested and brought before the courts? We were quite willing to to make an example of Mack and Ramgeet but since then it appears as if the Police has gone soft on this.

    • N says:

      A good attorney should be able to bring suit against CIG / the Court then eh?…after all, it does appear that the treatment / punishment of Skylar Mack and Ramgeet was much, much harsher than any consequence of late!

  13. Anonymous says:

    And we should know what houses are quarantining people so we can call if we see a breach!

  14. Anonymous says:

    So I hope that these people playing dominoes will be going to jail just like the 18yr old girl.
    Our system is such a joke.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Asked to be responsible for a week and some idiots think they’re too special to comply. Life is too short not to drink and play dominoes like I have done forever….smh

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s probably those bloody Canadians playing dominoes and drinking with friends.

      • Anonymous says:

        You know, you damn right

        Those pesky Canuks, eh

        LOL!

      • Anonymous says:

        I love me some good old authentic 100% Canadian Maple Syrup.

        It sweeter that meat, and when you want to eat, all that salt fish sweet😜

      • Anonymous says:

        It couldn’t be. Canadians only play dominoes on ice and they use little sticks to move the dominoes around. And they say “sorry” when they win.

  16. Anonymous says:

    So not breaches then, hence the lack of prosecutions.

  17. The problem is... says:

    lack of enforcement of the regulations.

    Other than a couple of “higher profile” case involving foreign visitors – Skylar Mack and the Canadians at Regal Beach I don’t think the public is aware of other cases where the rules have been enforced.

    It appears that they are now going to do so, but the horse has left the barn at this point.

    This is similar to when the police didn’t enforce the rules on the beach in the early days of the pandemic and we ended up closing them. At that point we were told there were too many people on the beach during the drinking event around Easter that triggered this and it was difficult to do anything about it. This ignored the fact that the police could have blocked vehicles in the car park and used their cameras to take pictures of the offenders. They could have run license plates and publish pictures to local media to name and shame the people that were in breach before prosecuting them.

    It appears that once again we have avoid enforcing rules we have on the books until it is too late and this as always has come back to bite Cayman in the ass.

    • ThIs WrItInG Is VeRy IrRiTaTiNg says:

      The vast majority of people here don’t think stop signs are for them so why would anyone think they could be trusted to self isolate? There’s no sense in having rules if they are not going to be enforced.

    • nauticalone345 says:

      Yep, very well said!

  18. Anonymous says:

    It’s there a vaccine for the dumbass pandemic

  19. Anonymous says:

    Must not be expats. Nothing new here.

  20. Anonymous says:

    why was Skylar and her boyfriend jailed? but no one else who breeched has? You are a total disgrace Sabrina when the newsreporter from.compass told you people.are not masked on the buses and your reply was people become relaxed. wrong answer if you have laws in place they should be followed. afraid if you enforce thry won’t vote for you again. XXXX

  21. Anonymous says:

    They were 52 REPORTS Of breaches not 52 breaches.

    Only a handful were actual breaches and those persons are being presented with 2 cases going to court next week.

    That is what the Commissioner said yesterday.

    Sincere thanks to our Travel Cayman team and the Police.

  22. Anonymous says:

    Pretty sure this didn’t just happen in August. It’s been happening all along and by large numbers.
    That’s why everyone was not complaining about quarantine. 🤣

  23. Anonymous says:

    Introduce a penalty point system like the UK so that traffic offenders risk loosing their license for a year.

  24. Anonymous says:

    Chatting across a fence or garden? Really? Within 6 ft? Or 20? In the meantime government is releasing people into the community after 5days quarantine – well within the incubation period – without any restrictions.

    • Anonymous says:

      Woke tree hugging government of amateurs collecting fat salary.

    • Anonymous says:

      5 day isolation plus negative test is standard per CDC and UK guidelines. Vaccinated or not. CIG has done nothing reckless with that rule.

  25. Nate Dog says:

    A little Six love yes!

  26. Anonymous says:

    Time for quarantine for vaxxed to end. Hopefully October 14th. Enough is enough.

    Cayman, one of the few places still in the world where you are a criminal for meeting up with a friend after traveling. After 18 months of this.

    Time to move on. Most of us got vaxxed 6 months ago so that we can open up.

    What are we waiting for?? COVID magically ending in three months? Or we perpetually remain a hermit kingdom?

  27. Anonymous says:

    Stop the Jamaica Covid express

  28. Anonymous says:

    Not enough enforcement, and investigations appear too lax and too slow. Trainergate was the start. It looks like corruption. Whatever it is, it endangers us all. Playing Dominos? Seriously? WTF?

  29. Anonymous says:

    Let’s face it, the community transmission is as a direct result of an idiot thinking he/she doesn’t need to follow the rules.

    Thanks a lot, dickhead.

  30. Anonymous says:

    Dominoes being played.

    Now that is one case that will never go to Court.

  31. Elvis says:

    The world is full of idiots. Seems they have found their way to cayman too

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