Prison officer positive for COVID-19
(CNS): A prison officer has tested positive for COVID-19 in what could now be a third separate case of community acquired coronavirus unconnected to the original outbreak in North Side or the George Town primary school case. Prison Director Steve Barrett told CNS that the inmates were already responding really well to the restrictions that are now being imposed at the jail, through no fault of theirs, as the protocols are rolled out across the prison.
The officer who reported feeling unwell during his shift yesterday tested positive at the prison and is now isolating at home. Public Health is conducting testing of staff and inmates at both prisons, where vaccine take-up has been relatively low.
Everyone who came in direct contact with the staff member yesterday is now isolating, the prison confirmed. Barrett said the prison service was already implementing preventive measures following the recent news of community transmission of COVID-19 to minimise the potential for the virus to spread within the prison population. Activities have been restricted to reduce the movement of people across the prison estates and external services are being cancelled.
The prison system is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to the high number of people clustered in a small area, Barrett said, stressing that the priority was to keep prisoners and staff safe “and ensuring the best possible outcomes for all”.
Visits are being cancelled temporarily but arrangements will be made for inmates to have virtual visits to ensure that they can maintain contact with their families. Mask mandates and sanitizing protocols are already in place at both prisons but the the Northward and Fairbanks sites will now undergo a Nanotize deep-cleaning treatment, which will coat every surface in the prison with a protective layer of nano-technology that protects against mould and coronavirus for up to six months.
Although HMP Northward has its own COVID-19 vaccination centre, only 33% of inmates are fully vaccinated and 56% have had one dose, which is relatively high when compared to other prison populations in other jurisdictions but it is very low given Cayman’s national vaccination rate of more than 71%. Barrett said that despite the access to the vaccines, there is a reluctance among inmates to engage, which is complicated by the transient nature of the population.
He explained that when prisoners are released at the end of their time many of them have been vaccinated while serving their sentence, only to be replaced by unvaccinated new inmates, which constantly impacts the rate. However, around 40 inmates are due for their second shot later this month and the news of the arrival of the Delta variant has increased interest in the vaccine among inmates, he said.
The rate among staff is higher but still below the national rate, with just 57% fully vaccinated and 61% have had at least one shot. There is currently no mandate for any front-line workers, including prison officers, even though they have to deal with prisoners in isolation who have been arrested for illegal landing or have been extradited from other countries.
Government officials have not yet revealed any further cases, as testing and tracing continues in relation to all of the latest incidence of the virus. There are now at least 18 confirmed cases of local transmission, including eight children.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
NOW you have a problem. I’m an “open the island” person and a “can’t hide from it” one too. However, in the prison is a HUGE problem…
Only 57% of prison workers fully vaccinated. That is atrocious! Prison workers should have been mandated to be vaccinated. Government throws their weight around making other orders but pussyfooting around making their own damn frontline workers get vaccinated.
You know where most of them are from right? Anti-vaxxer central.
The prison guard who is sick is vaccinated.
you don’t understand. go back to sleep.
The majority of them are Caymanian.
Does that include the 70% that are Jamaican?
The prisoners and prison staff, the nursing home and patients and the hospital staff should all have been vaccinated at 100% as they are all in close contact and in that highly vulnerable group. That along with elderly and all first responders. For that not to have been done way back when the vaccine first came out shows incompetence. These are the people that needed the most protection.
cig dropped the ball again.
prisnoers should have been mandated to be vaxxed from day 1. an outbreak at the prison could swamp our health system overnight….what idiots we have as leaders.
time to petition the uk for direct rule.
vaccination rate for staff and prisoners is appalling.
all front line workers must be vaccinated.
why are we letting anti-vaxxers drag us down with their own ignorance?
What about freedom to choose what goes into your body? Or, that doesn’t exist anymore?
go ask joe biden or any other world leader.
you can choose not have a vaxxine but you want enjoy the same freedoms as the vaxxed!
Wow.. I can’t believe what I am seeing the thumbs down. TT asked a fair question. In other words, do you believe in copying China – yes or no? It seems like the majority OUT OF FEAR are against people having the right to choose what goes into their bodies!
I believe you should be free to choose what goes into your body, but that begins and ends with your body. You are not free to be a risk to others through your personal choice. I don’t object to your drinking, but i do object to your driving around whilst drunk. So don’t get the vaccine – but then don’t whine if you are not allowed in crowed public places without periodic testing to demonstrate you are infected. Choices have consequences – but they should be your consequences based on your choices, not consequences inflicte don others.
So to be clear, you believe the vaxxed need to be protected from the unvaxxed?
You then further believe it is your right to force a person to get vaxxed?
Think about it. Seriously.
You can’t think without a brain. Seems most people lost it. The vaxxed took it to be protected, but now want the government to further protect them from the unvaxxed. The more you say it the less sense it makes.
Just as you can choose to put smoke into your lungs, but it’s against the law to smoke in public to protect the rest of us that aren’t stupid enough to smoke…
The point of having the prisoners and prison officers vaccinated is that covid could spread thru a prison rapidly as it is close quarters. It has been shown that those who are vaccinated may get covid, but the chances of dying or being hospitalized are much less than if you are not. For that reason alone, all prison staff and the prisoners should receive the covid vaccine.
Abortion is illegal in cayman, even if via rape, so don’t think that argument works? ‘My body my choice’ … what is the difference between abortion and the right of choosing whether to take a vaccine?
Agreed!
Time for protests.
Demand the governor give woman their rights!
Any Caymanian seeking an abortion only needs to go to NHS UK and produce their British Passport. So in a way Caymanians already have access to abortions.
The difference is abortion due to your irresponsibility is murder. So, ypu really shouldn’t have any choice when ot comes to taking the life of an unborn baby. But not taking a vaccine by which you don’t know the consequences of it 5 or 10 years done the road, is not a crime. Nobody is hurt by it since the vaccinated are in the same boat with the unvaccinated in terms of spreading it and causing it to mutate. I hope this helps you 🙂
Killing an unborn child = the right not to choose a medical treatment?
So you want to be free to be a public health risk? Got it.
Fine than open up an let me freedom be to travel!
Even if they were all vaccinated, they’d still catch it. Some of them might have less severe disease progression though. Look at universities in the US where there is vaccination requirement for in-campus attendances, say Duke University. Hundreds of students infected and in some cases entire dorm buildings almost completely infected. If the vaccine worked at stopping the virus this wouldn’t happen. And among the adults in Cayman that got infected so far in this outbreak almost all of them have been vaccinated.
2:39 Have you got the stats to back this up?
Just go back and watch the press briefings and read any news article and use your brain to back it up.
But how many adults that where vaccinated where exposed and did NOT get it!
My guess is a lot.
Your statement is miss leading!
6.38pm That’s not how it works. You got ~85% of the adults vaccinated. If so far 90% of the infected adults are vaccinated that’s an early sign that the vaccine doesn’t stop transmission with Delta. That’s exactly what we see in Israel, Iceland, Singapore and any other country that discloses the breakdowns, at least somewhat honestly.
Of course this is just the beginning and small sample. We will have to see how this develops in the case count going forward. And some governments, after the numbers don’t look good for the vaccine, stop reporting the breakdowns to keep folks in the dark. What path will CIG choose?
With that said, the vaccine does seem to help materially with the most severe cases and does reduce mortality for older folks and those with comorbidities.
Are you sure it’s not Mrs. Leading?
Why are they nanotizing every surface? It’s known now that Covid isn’t spread through surface contact, but rather in air particles.
Does this mean the prison will be on lockdown?
Now that is a novel idea 😉
I’m too lazy to write it.
Why are only 33% of inmates vaccinated? Work permit holders have to be vaccinated, but not prisoners. This says a lot about how Cayman views its “guests”.
Yes WP holders are often treated as if they were criminals. 6 monthly police report, 6 monthly STD tests, compulsory vaccinations etc.
Now we can see they have less freedom of choice than convicted criminals.
Don’t forget that the police reports also take 6 months to be sent to you after you apply
you can leave whenever you want
because they’re all caymanian
The lack of mandatory vaccination for personnel interacting with potential Covid- carriers is not only dangerous, it may even be negligent. It endangers us all.
Do the crime, do the time. Self inflicted, no sympathy.
So it go. Get used to it.
Persons, such as prisoners, confined to a small building should have been clamoring to get vaxxed as they have no control on movement.
These persons dont think……sorry, forgot, that is probably why they are in there in the first place.
Let’s be honest, the average IQ in there ain’t anywhere near triple digits.
All this focus from Cayman Health during the last 18 months on keeping the borders closed tight and treating travelers like actual lepers and the country couldn’t even vaccinate your own PRISON?!?! Yikes. There have been so many outbreaks tied to this exact situation in the US and UK alike in 2020. I predict your borders will be forced open to let in foreign aid workers if this indeed the case.
Just had a case of an HSA Authority staff member catching Covid, now it’s a Prison employee. How can Govt ask everyone to get vaccinated when so many of their own employees who are in close contact with the public have not been!.
I’m sorry but I missed where the article said the person who tested positive was unvaccinated. Can you please direct me to the reference?
What? Just because you test positive it doesn’t mean you’re unvaccinated!
I mean, seriously, after all the information on COVID, you don’t know this?