More Prospect kids have COVID but school to reopen

| 29/09/2021 | 72 Comments
Cayman News Service
Senior Forensic Scientist Christian Taylor operates a machine used in PCR testing

(CNS): Several more students from Prospect Primary School have tested positive for COVID-19 but officials said the school will still reopen Thursday. It appears there are now six cases of the coronavirus related to the school, all connected to the same class, but Public Health officials are giving out only limited information regarding the latest cases of community transmission. Three of the four Year 6 students from PPS who have COVID are now isolating with their families but the rest of the children will be able to return to school tomorrow, officials have said. Meanwhile, another six people have tested positive in relation to the George Town Primary outbreak during exit testing but the school will open Monday.

Parents with children at Prospect not isolating are asked to contact their family doctor or the Flu Hotline at 947-3077, 925-6327 or 1-800-534-8600 if their children develop flu-like symptoms. They can also take children to the Flu Clinic at the Cayman Islands Hospital, Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm or to the Accident and Emergency Department outside of those hours.

In addition to the local cases related to the two school outbreaks, four travellers have tested positive for the virus. Public Health has not released any details on exactly how many children are currently showing symptoms of the virus, though the first case relating to Prospect Primary was in a child who was sick and had gone to the flu clinic.

With 15 new positive cases reported Wednesday, including the four travellers, there are currently 68 active cases among those in quarantine, and 24 of those individuals are showing symptoms of the coronavirus. Of the 15 people who tested positive today, 13 were vaccinated.

Vaccination figures continue to increase steadily, with 78% of the population now having had at least one dose.

Boosters are now being administered to all extremely vulnerable people, including those with organ transplants, on dialysis or chemotherapy, and people living with HIV/AIDS.


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Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (72)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Stop worrying about ‘cases’. The vaccine clearly works. Cases are not an issue. Hospitalization and death are the issues, of which we currently have zero last time I checked. People need to start realizing that covid will never go away.

    • Anonymous says:

      The vaccine clearly works, until it doesn’t=>proceed to the boosters stand.

      Agree with the rest of your comment

  2. Anonymous says:

    Good, at least kids will gain some kind of immunity on their own. There probably many more cases out there though, sorry I meant “head cases” that don’t want this,

  3. Anonymous says:

    It is sad that the ‘open the borders and let the unvaccinated die’ advocates don’t give any thought to what a massive surge in Covid cases would do to our health care workers who would have to deal with it. It is not easy watching people die horribly day after day.

    • Anonymous says:

      What is our true individual oxygenated bed capacity, excluding the plastic-sealed common room with HVAC 02 at Health City? How many primary and backup bottles do we have, and what is their service condition? How many 02-only separators and compressors? How many trained compressor and oxygen staff for all three islands, and how many of them available over a 24 hour shift period? I suspect we have a variety of critical epidemic bottlenecks that “open the border” types don’t want to think about.

    • Anonymous says:

      So when should we open then? Never.

      What is sad that our own people do not listen to the expert that had just traveled to the UK and said we can live with this virus!

    • Anonymous says:

      They are cases, not being admitted to the hospital.I haven’t heard of anyone dying in Cayman except the 2 that have been listed for quite some time. Get a grip.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Please don’t assume that because you’ve got a QR vax code on your phone, for the novel virus from last year, months after vaccination, that you are immune against a highly mutated Delta, or what might come next. We just got $100 Quest Lab results back for SARS COVID 2 AB total spike semi QN antibodies test…7 months past 2nd “fully-vaxed” milestone, my wife is 6 times higher active antibody count than me. She’s good, I’m not. For me, it’s like I’m barely wearing a speedo against Covid-classic, let alone this thing. Going to get my 3rd. Best of luck to everyone betting the farm, or their lifetime health, on the strength of a squiggle square on their phone. Know that it doesn’t reveal your true clinical situation, sadly.

    • Anonymous says:

      And that test means nothing.

      I had covid and are fully vaccinated and don’t read on that test at all.
      My doctor said the test is junk that’s why no one uses it.

      • Anonymous says:

        Your doctors is just expressing his opinion. They are usually 3 years behind of the latest research.

    • Anonymous says:

      May be she got asymptotic Covid19 without knowing? Vaccinated people can get covid as you said. Theoretically you should have been infected as well.

    • Anonymous says:

      There are also T-cells…. which you cannot test for in Cayman, and provide longer lasting immunity.

  5. Anonymous says:

    So masks don’t work?

  6. Anon says:

    At least the school keeping open has more brains than the government shutting the island down !

  7. Anonymous says:

    This mornings news from Singapore which has a higher vaccination rate than we do

    “The 2,478 new cases reported by Singapore’s health ministry on Thursday are the country’s highest since the beginning of the pandemic. Two new deaths were also reported.

    Despite more than 80% of its population being vaccinated, Singapore has witnessed a recent rise in cases that has disrupted plans to reopen. Instead, this week the country limited social gatherings to two people and implemented working from home.”

    CNS: CNBC – Singapore is seeing daily record Covid cases. Here’s why it may not be a bad thing

  8. Anonymous says:

    Maybe if they stopped running the PCR test above 28 they’d stop finding ‘positives’

  9. Anonymous says:

    The key to managing this is knowing the incubation period, and adding in reasonable buffers. Info below comparing Delta with pre-Delta:

    Info from: https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-updates/2021/07/are-things-different-delta

    Looking only at cases for which they could determine the exact time of exposure, researchers found that the time interval from exposure to positive PCR test ranged from three to five days, with a peak at 3.71 days. In contrast, data from the 2020 outbreak showed that it took an average of six days from exposure to positive test with a range of five to eight days and a peak at 5.61.

    Not only were Delta-infected individuals testing positive two days earlier, on average, they were also way more infectious by the time their infections were detectible. And by “way more infectious,” we’re talking about viral loads that were an average of 1,260 times higher than those observed in individuals infected with the original strain of the virus.

  10. Anonymous says:

    GTPS had a wider spread. It affected all the classes except Year 1. I would like to know is Prospect related to any of the first two outbreaks. I wish that people would stop acting like it’s nothing. At some point, someone will die from this and then it will be how PACT didn’t do enough to keep us safe. I just hope that all of these commenters are expats probably Americans and not Caymanians. Otherwise, I would be very worried that we have become uncaring about our own people.

  11. Anonymous says:

    The government should put much effort in getting the population healthy instead of chasing the virus. Many people seem to be insulin resistant. They are saying everyone will eventually catch the virus eventually.
    Now maybe a good time to have everyone catch it.

  12. Anonymous says:

    HOLY F(*…..what is this….someone using common sense?

    Nope, it can’t be!

  13. Anonymous says:

    The education should continue. No reason those not infected should be interrupted.

  14. Anonymous says:

    If the school can reopen, so can the island. Is the new CIG policy is to slowly introduce the COVID virus to each citizen? Years will pass before we open up. With nearly every person over age 40 vaccinated, it’s time to move into year 2021. A life spent in fear is a life unlived.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Let it rip since it’s definitely within the community. The cat is out of the bag and nobody is dying.

    • Anonymous says:

      Death isn’t the only yardstick of public health and safety. Many survivors have lifetime health complications, and here, those translate into immediate and future state-born costs.

      • Anonymous says:

        Thank you.

      • Anonymous says:

        How do you know they are life time?
        It’s a 24 month old virus!

      • Anonymous says:

        Millions already living with debilitating chronic conditions that are NOT from covid. So I’d say welcome to the Club. May be scientists would start looking into CFS,ME, POTS and other syndromes which also exhibited in people with long-covid.

    • Anonymous says:

      Correction. Nobody is dying … yet.

    • Anonymous says:

      10 died in Bermuda, yesterday. You sure seem confident. Have you got any older family members here?

      • Anonymous says:

        Yes, I do but they’re all vaccinated and not concerned about the reopening.

      • Anonymous says:

        No. They’re vaccinated and live in a COVID riddled area, and I haven’t seen them for 2 years, but thanks for checking.

  16. James says:

    Why are we not being provided with any more details? Where is the transparency from this government?

    • Anonymous says:

      If they are more transparent, they can’t pull the kind of “scare tactic” hoaxes Kenny B likes to use on the public.

    • Anonymous says:

      Transparency to them is releasing “minutes” of meetings, after the decisions made within have already been gazetted and are public knowledge anyway.

  17. Anonymous says:

    A lot of kids getting natural immunity, just like about half the kids in the US and UK. Not a serious pathogen for children — 20 months of data on this with millions of infections.

  18. ELVIS says:

    we have to learn to live with this simple.
    Even I’m tired of it now.
    Get vaccinated and you will be fine.

    • just me. says:

      Or don’t get vaccinated. Maybe catch it and get natural immunity of the variant you caught. Maybe you catch it and don’t even know like most folks. Maybe you start to live a normal life again instead of a fear based Government run shut down of life. It’s what I have been doing and it makes more sense than what I am watching around me. But if that is what you need to do then I understand. All the best.

  19. Anonymous says:

    Wish everyone a speedy recovery. However, it appears that this Govt. wants to catch up with Bermuda on COVID-19:cases. The PPS positive student went to flu clinic. How many people were in the same room as the kid? We are now seeing 6 positive cases from GTPS even after 14 days of isolation, but the PPS is reopening and all the kids (except those who are positive) will be back to school and their families back to work. How many of these could be incubating the virus!? 13 out of 15 who tested positive today are vaccinated. Those vaccinated seem to have false sense of security that they won’t catch it or atlease they won’t die. Open your Eyes! 10% of COVID deaths in Bermuda were fully vaccinated people. The vaccinated people, with false sense of security, could pass it on to other vaccinated persons and to those who cannot get vaccinated, which may not have good results.

    • Anonymous says:

      And your solution is? Everyone stay inside for ever for fear of spreading the virus? Love to hear your solution to living with Covid.

      • Anon says:

        Well you could increase the quarantine to 14 days like it was when it was eradicated here. All you travellers can still come in and out. That would be the sensible thing to do in a plague

        • Anonymous says:

          But it’s too late …. It’s already here and trust me 14 days quarantine will kill the economy. If you think that’s a good idea you are niaive. COVID isn’t going away and a 14 day quarantine will kill businesses and the financial sector as a long term solution.

          • Anonymous says:

            People are remote working all over the world. Think of quarantine as remote working. I am sure its more relaxed at home and I don’t think they are working as hard as in the office. Financial sector and the Government with its surplus has never been better. The EU will kill the financial sector quicker before Covid does.

        • Anonymous says:

          BINGO! The view may be unpopular, but it is right if life and safety are to be the primary consideration.

        • Anonymous says:

          Yes, go back to 14 days of monitored quarantine. Open the borders to tourists who are willing to do this to live in sunshine instead of their oncoming winter. Offer and promote a different tourism product to target those who can do the longer quarantine and then spend couple or more months here to escape the winter,

    • Anonymous says:

      0.0012% of the population has passed away from COVID. 7 people had the vaccine who passsed. 0.0001 % of vaccinated people have passed away. Stop fear mongering

    • Recovering at HOME, not in the HOSPITAL! says:

      we have ONE patient in the hospital and she had underlying conditions. Regardless of vaccination status, our community cases are recovering at home and living to talk about it. THE END!! Let’s stop living in fear and MOVE ON!!
      We should be more concerned with the unhealthy members of society, promote a healthy lifestyle and maybe, just maybe, quit with these restrictions banning our kids from gyms b/c they’re not old enough to be vaccinated! Let them exercise and be healthy to keep them in a position to get through covid, should they catch it.

    • Anonymous says:

      The child, and the child’s close contacts, including the child’s classmates, family and teachers, will still be required to isolate for 14 days total and be tested at the end. Relax.

      • Anonymous says:

        So the other children at the school didn’t use the same restroom or other common areas as the positive children?

    • Anonymous says:

      Exactly! I’m a Caymanian and I’m so frustrated with the situation. We’ve had “closed borders” since March 2020 and even so we have it here. Now, instead of moving forward following current science/data/facts we are being told to follow protocols of March 2020.

    • Anonymous says:

      The virus came back here because of reducing the quarantine and not monitoring them! We were good until then!

  20. Anonymous says:

    Finally a decision that makes some sense!

  21. Anonymous says:

    So…I’m trying to make sense out of nonsense…one school remains closed and the other will be opened tomorrow…I’m still confused…clearly government is making it up as they go along…how does this make any sense?

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