GTPS parent in serious quarantine breach
(CNS): A mother of a George Town Primary School student has been found in breach of her mandated quarantine rules by selling food and doing other business that has brought her into contact with other people, despite her potential exposure to COVID-19. Dozens of households are currently in quarantine as a result of the outbreak at GTPS, in which 18 children and two adults have been infected with the virus.
While many children and their families had negative tests last week following the first case, the incubation period for this coronavirus can be more than two weeks. The woman is also currently on bail in relation to an unrelated criminal allegation.
In an official press release, Travel Cayman Director Casandra Morris said there is no concern for the general public at this time, suggesting that the woman had been retested and proved to be negative.
“We will continue to investigate this incident with our partnering agencies,” she said. “I strongly encourage persons who are in quarantine to take it very seriously and refrain from any action that might breach their quarantine. Along with Public Health and RCIPS, we are all working tirelessly to eradicate the spread of COVID-19 and need the active cooperation and participation of those involved. We can only protect our families, the community and the nation if those in quarantine adhere to the Regulations.”
People quarantining at home or at a specific residence are forbidden to leave the premises or hand over any item to others outside of their quarantine. Only people making contactless deliveries should visit the properties. The penalties for anyone who fails to follow this rule are up to two years in jail and a maximum $10,000 fine, upon conviction
“The present breach is a very serious matter,” said Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, who chairs the COVID Programme Board. “Quarantine breaches endanger our entire community. Any failure by persons in quarantine to obey our laws and regulations will not be tolerated. Our public safety and public health agencies have been working tirelessly to protect the people of the Cayman Islands from the COVID-19 virus. I thank these agencies for their swift response to today’s breach of quarantine,” he said on Saturday.
Public Health said the investigate into the breach continues, adding there there was no need for public concern.
However, it is widely suspected that the outbreaks of the virus in the community were most likely caused by breaches of isolation rules or the illegal landing of canoes bringing drugs, guns and people from Jamaica, where the virus is out of control. There is also a possibility that fully vaccinated people with breakthrough infections who were still incubating the virus when they were released from quarantine may have inadvertently caused the community transmissions.
So far, Public Health has not been able to confirm the source of either the GTPS outbreak or the first case of community transmission in North Side.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Health, Medical Health
If this indeed a serious matter, how is it that she hasn’t been arrested, her EARLIER bail rescinded and remanded to jail?! What does it take to enforce serious laws here. There’s rumor that she sells foods without a license. I’m inclined to believe this under the circumstances. Start with something as serious as ensuring she abides by those laws and was licensed to sell food in the first place and perhaps the rest wouldn’t have happened.
As a single mother of two school aged kids, I feel for this poor woman. Not saying what she did wasn’t wrong but not having income for 2+ weeks, who knows even if you’ll have a job to go back to after quarantine, is terrifying. The government must fix the system to have a better balance between public health and the practical needs of families on this island.
I have a question, which has been nagging away at me for months.
I live on North Sound, and often I see foreign fishing boats (Nicaraguan? Honduran?) going over the Sound to or from a landing spot on Marina Drive, just south of the marina. Fishermen hang out there, receive visitors, and are sometimes even seen in Hurleys.
My “question” is actually multiple questions. Do these fishermen have to quarantine on arrival, snd if not why not? Aren’t they a huge infection risk? Who regulates them? Are they tested? Even if they have to report to CBC in George Town before coming ashore in North Sound, are we sure they can’t pick someone else up on the way? Are their numbers checked in and out, or when they depart, could they just leave people here on the island?
Which brings me to another raft of related questions: why have they been allowed to set up an unofficial port on a vacant residential lot on Marina Drive? Shouldn’t Planning have stopped them by now? Who owns that lot? Are they renting it to the fishermen?
I suspect someone knows someone in government, who has told the authorities to turn a blind eye. I hope I’m wrong. Perhaps someone who knows the answers to my questions can prove I am.
Superb questions! Simple answer:
CIG is incompetent.
They cannot/will not prosecute violated laws.
They cannot/will not prosecute criminals within the ministerial ranks.
They cannot/will not professionally investigate crimes.
They cannot/will not enforce traffic violations.
They are truly ‘out-educated’ and ‘out-smarted’.
Cayman Law Enforcement = Keystone Cops (A comic of blundering idiots).
It would be awesome if they could protect the North Sound perimeter, alas, they can’t protect their own backyard………
#caymankeystonecops
Why not in jail like skyler and Ranjit.
I wonder who the thumbs-downs are…
“fishermen”
I hope you’re looking forward about 100 years because it’s not happening anytime soon!
Definitely a short circuit in that fuse box.
So a case or two at another school and ALL students and ALL parents have to go into total lockdown? A person or two in an office of 100 and ALL employees and their families have to lockdown?
If a few employees at the Government Administration Building test positive, is the premier and all MLAs and the Governor going to lockdown?
I’d also like to know the answer to this. I don’t think people with mild symptoms are going to be motivated to get tested if they know it could result in ALL of their colleagues being quarantined for two weeks. Or parents of potentially infected kids now for that matter.
They need to come up with something more reasonable for people that test negative.
Civil servants would love that
All of those commenting here that this breach is not a big deal, that the school should not have been closed because of a few kids testing positive, that we should open up like the rest of the world is and just move on, yada, yada , yada. Just remember that eventually someone in Cayman is going to die from COVID. Period. When that happens, pray that it isn’t somebody that YOU love.
Take the vax.
And you think that not opening the border or forcibly quarantining every family at a school with a case is going to change that outcome, do you? If we just wait long enough in our bubble, the rest of the world will change and the virus will disappear?
Anon 0355 I don’t think you see the big picture. They are trying to manage so that when we get cases it is a relatively small number and medical services are better equipped to handle. You open and you get a massive amount of cases. Hospital overrun with cases. You could see people dieing not so much because they have covid but because the hospital does not have resources to deal with such a massive problem numbers wise. Other countries they are talking about not having breathing equipment for example.
I don’t know the circumstances of this particular case, and there is no justification for this breach, but it’s clearly time to revisit how this is going to work. While I agree that everyone should comply with any legal or Public Health orders, when they are so overreactive and overly broad, they are setting up for breaches. The GTPS isolation requirement is both too broad in scope and too long for the families not directly affected – many jurisdictions have good policies for handling school cases, based on science and common sense, and it isn’t hard to look at them to come up with one for us.
Without a plan that everyone understands and can prepare for, this is the collateral damage. Parents need to work, many can’t work at home and don’t get paid if they don’t show up. Not everyone can afford to have two weeks worth of supplies on hand just in case, and it isn’t realistic or desirable for Government to agree to support everyone who is isolated when there are so many.
Make rules that make sense. Tell everyone what they are, how to prepare for their impact, and what kind of support they can expect if they are required to isolate. Then, when the rules are broken, enforce them. Every time. And not with a “free ride” in a Government hotel for two weeks.
And you think that visitors are the problem!
#Truth
From Jamaica, at night, yes.
So, if one child at YOUR child’s school tests postiive (and then a handful of others – all with either NO or very mild symptoms) and you are vaccinated, and you and your child test negative, you have no problem with the government shutting the entire school for 14 days and forcing your entire family into a 14-day quarantine?
I’m sure some responses here will be the virtuous “Of course I am fine with it! I am a perfect socially responsible individual and will gladly give up my freedom.” Okay, great – good for you. What about if you get through it all and then a couple weeks later another child at your child’s school tests positive? This is not the precedent that should be set and that we should all just be accepting. No where else in the world does this.
I agree, the 14 day quarantine is absolutely ridiculous for the entire school. How are these parents going to work, buy supplies, and pay rent/mortgage? Absolute over reaction driven by baseless fear and panic that is going to have real consequences for real families…
Lockdown the school or lockdown the country?
The choice is yours. Pick one.
We had the same over-reaction last year when we locked up dozens of families over what very well could have been a false positive.
Remember the “weakly positive” case at Red Bay
https://caymannewsservice.com/2020/10/red-bay-families-released-from-isolation/
A year later we still don’t have protocols in place that make sense.
Yup, that’s our CIG hard at work. WHICH – WE elected!
Especially considering the fact that you or I could fly in from Jamaica or Miami and only get a 7 day quarantine.
But a GT primary school kid who tests negative, and their entire household, still has to lock down for 14!?!?
Where is there any logic at all in that?
CIG Logic. Not….. But the CIG Brain-Trust is hard at work – figuring out how to sharpen a pencil.
Why only Skyler went to jail?
“… No where else in the world does this.”
Factually incorrect, my school district does. And I cannot fathom how the parents can deal with this. However, they have a 42% vaccine rate in the community and a school board of right-wing nutcases who will not mandate masks. Yes, our district is sadly “Trump/Fox County.”
Your school district closes the ENTIRE school for two weeks and forces all families of all students into quarantine? I find this hard to believe…
They did it in either Scotland or Wales. I can’t remember which.
Agree! You can’t shut down a school and quarantine everyone every time there is 1 case in school, this has serious economic, educational and not to mention mental health consequences. CIG what is the plan?
Now we’re “eradicating the spread of Covid”? What happened to living with Covid like the rest of the planet?
Wait til the next case pops up at Prep or JGHS and hundreds of other families are forcibly confined regardless of vaccination with no release date. Not to mention that no one is even sick let alone going to the hospital. This is madness.
If it “pops up” at Prep or CIS, at least one of the parents will take CIG and Dr. Lee to court.
I know which side I would bet on…
I’m counting on this. The parents at these schools are not at all freaking out over GTPS and think its a huge over reacation. School has been flooded with parents sending messages demanding school leadership lobby government for a more measured and actually risk-based response.
I sadly await that event. Will not be a good day, but reality sucks.
That’s far worse than Skyler’s breach and she was sent to prison
She was expat. Different rules apply.
@20/09/2021 at 12:45 pm – this one is expat too, so what’s your point exactly?!
This quarantine breaking lady is also an expat, if you include Jamaicans as expats.
#caymanincompetence.
It’s not worse, it’s about the same – they both showed disregard for the law. Both deserve to go to prison.
cig’s fault …nobody else.
the 5 day quarantine honesty system was a recipe for disaster.
Just when you think it couldn’t get worse when people open their mouths to give their non scientific version of what they believe. No wonder Dr Lee left this island !
Travel Cayman Director Casandra Morris just have everyone a “get out of quarantine and do whatever the XXXX you want card” by saying there is no concern for the general public at this time. We are looking more like a third world country everyday of the week with people in “Authority” coming up with completely different looks on the same subjects. Quarantine being this one.
Personally I think there should be no quarantine, but if our Neanderthal govt says there is, why oh why is it not being enforced. How long is this circus going to be in town.
We elected clowns – and yes, the circus came to town. It will continue until we stop electing fools. Sadly, it’s our fault.
Civil service got Chiefs who are over paid and incompetent. Never held accountable for their errors but we like to give them honours and praises. Gotta stop or we all gonna die!
I’m not convinced that the good Dr. is that much of a loss.
He is a soft-spoken voice and calming presence on the press conferences, but based on multiple statements on Covid-19 and of course his Dr. Express testimony I don’t know if he deserves the public esteem with which he seems to be held.
You may be correct, but I believe he did the best he could with a bunch of political buffoons that dictated his ability to do a good job. (I’ll accept he did a poor job with the medical cannabis clinic).
Covid is actually a reasonably predictable and understood virus, and the science while evolving and getting refined is well accepted. BUT, stupid people who listen and believe non-science are a great hinderance. Dr Lee I believe understood science; but he was held to ‘Caymanian Science.’ And this unfortunately due to our superbly educated (Caymanian) electorate believe in full moons and donkey rides… Can’t make this sh.t up!
Would love to know more of this ladies circumstances. Criminal charges for what. Selling food breaching quarantine rules leads one to feel compassion not judgement as maybe this lady is in dire straights and this is her only method getting money. So many unknowns. Can’t say I’d blame her or anyone if this is the case. Not everyone can quarantine without help. Would love for CNS to look at the why’s of this case to have a full understanding.
Okay, so, while I agree that we need to take this seriously, we also need to consider the specifics here and think long term. This woman is double vaccinated and tested negative. Her child tested negative. She was forced into a 14-day prison sentence and her source of income was taken away because of the effectively 0% chance she may eventually test positive?
For all of you calling for her to be named and shamed, deported, etc. take a second to think here. How will you feel if (actually, not if but WHEN) this happens at your child’s school you are forced into a 14-day quarantine despite being double vaccinated and despite you and your child testing negative and despite this not being the protocal anywhere else in the world (closing an entire school – are you kidding me???).
Yes, we all need to do our part but should also be demanding government take a measured approach here that balances the risk with people’s rights and freedoms. I haven’t heard about all employees, their familes and close contacts of the East End health clinic being subjected to this and as far as I am aware, the clinic isn’t closed for 14 days.
This is a slippery slope and we should be mindful of how supportive we are of governemnt’s reaction to the GTPS cases because the next time it could be you forced into this.
We purposely have not traveled anywhere because we do not want our children to be subjected to the traumatic nose swab test (so disappointing that the Ministry of Education made no plans for other tests to be available – the poor children, especially the younger ones, needing to be held down – that is abuse) and the 14-day quarantine.
Ok – would you eat the food this woman had been handling?!!
YES!!! For goodness sake, get a grip!
Uh, NO!
0% Chance she may eventually test positive? Don’t know where you get your facts and figures from but I suggest you find another source. There are persons who test negative on arrival to the Island and who then test positive when due to leave quarantine.
I agree that we need to learn to live with this pandemic but why take unnecessary chances.
I don’t think you are going to catch from the genips? A French kiss maybe if you don’t have Caybrew to wash it down.
I hope she is sitting in jail right now
IN JAIL!.. We paying for her and family hotel room (quarantine) for 14 Days of RELAXATION!
Were we paying her for lost income though? What is she supposed to do?
Shes vaccinated, she & her child both tested negative. Saying she cant work for 2 weeks may not be as relaxing for her as you think
These people are unconscionable and have no respect for public safety punish them to the fullest extend of the law.
OMG can everyone get a grip.
You have no one in the hospital. Only, what 2 symptomatic cases none serious, one of the highest vaccination rates in the entire world, and the internet that everyone is obviously using for spewing their vitriol and none for learning what the entire rest of the planet is doing.
CI would be throwing breachers to the lions if you had the felines and a stadium.
@1.04pm – I think you have got the wrong end of the stick. The issue most people have is the blatant disregard for following rules and the leniency shown by those in charge.
The head of Travel Cayman Director Cassandra Morris is a joke in the position because of being a favorite of the DG. Ask the staff and anybody in the department. This is serious stuff and requires real leadership not just a talking head.
#Caymanstupid.
Jail.
Jail and fine this idiot that put everybody’s children at risk. If they are not Caymanian deport the person because they do not respect the rules that have kept Cayman safe. No more excuses.
What do we do when they are Caymanian?
Prosecute if guilty JAIL and fine. A lesson must be taught to locals as well.
Thanks for the report, but it will be swept under the mat as usual.
This isn’t ebola folks you need to all get a grip on the hysteria… The rest of the world is moving forward (lifting travel bans, mask mandates etc) and we are not.
You’re right. Its not ebola. COVID has killed more people than ebola in a shorter period of time. Especially from spikes in places where travel bans and mask mandates were lifted too early.
(I think I get what you’re trying to say, but maybe find a better way to try to say it. Because what you said clearly aint it.)
Yet she’s posting and boasting on facebook in their pool view room, about “den afta mi work suh hard. Mi deserve it”.
COME ON CAYMAN THEY TAKING US FOR FOOLS AND SPITTING IN OUR COUNTRY’S, LAW AND PEOPLE’S FACE! The comments on that facebook post should all be taken account of and everyone held in contempt of the LAW. We let far too much of this happen here on our islands. They should be jailed much less given a hotel room to enjoy. Make this had happen in ‘another country’.
Quarantine of close contacts of a case is ok. But qurantining whole school and their families is not warranted.
When will CIG charge Cayman Airways for breach of COVID Regulations? Cayman Airways is not CIG but a company formed in Cayman under the Companies Act and is liable for prosecution.
Failure to prosecute is another strike to place Cayman on blacklist for selective enforcement of laws.
I hear your frustration but how will CIG go about prosecuting Cayman Airways – After all CIG is the sole shareholder of CIG. Are they gonna sue themselves? lol
There is no concern for the general public at this time. Then how is it a serious breach? At this rate we might as well all be tested, over ten days, locked up for 16 days. Oh wait … I once heard there was a vaccine. Is it true? Alternatively, I will just become an American democratic celebrity to obtain my freedom again.
I look forward to the confirmation of the $10,000 fine !!!!!!
Oh but she is probably caymanian so will probably be let off with a smack on the wrist
Nope. Jamaican.
Sha has Cayman Status
Jamaican
She is not a Caymanian.