3rd positive COVID case emerges in contact tracing
(CNS): A third person has tested positive for COVID-19 during the contact tracing linked to the woman who was hospitalised on Wednesday, according to Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee. This person was not vaccinated but had no symptoms. The other 49 or so people who have been tracked so far after contact with these two community cases, the first in over a year, tested negative. Two of these positive cases have been confirmed as the Delta variant.
But exactly how these three people were infected remains a mystery. Dr Lee explained that it is difficult to find the source since the person who infected them may no longer have the virus, and people don’t always remember and are not always truthful with officials about those they have met.
Speaking at Friday evening’s media briefing, the CMO said the new case has led to more contact tracing, which will continue over the weekend as the hunt for the source goes on.
Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez explained that those who are being traced and tested have so far shown no travel history for more than a month, and he confirmed that public health officials are able to verify if people have travelled.
The patient who was the first of this group to test positive with the coronavirus remains in hospital in a stable condition, and while she has few COVID-19 symptoms, she is dealing with other medical issues.
Meanwhile, the health and tourism ministers both confirmed that the woman who managed to board a Cayman Airways flight to Grand Cayman despite having a positive test result for COVID-19 remains in tagged quarantine with her travelling companion. She is facing an investigation, as it is an offence to travel with a positive test.
Cayman Airways CEO Fabian Whorms said the airline had implemented increased security measures to stop this from happening again as well as conducting an internal investigation. Explaining why CAL staff on the flight have not been quarantined, he said that the cockpit crews are kept separate from passengers so they are never at risk.
But he said the cabin crew are on the front line with travellers on every flight, where there could be a positive case, and so, since repatriation flights began, they have been utilizing strict measures to minimise their exposure. Whorms said there is no cabin service and zero contact with passengers unless there is an emergency, so they are there for safety only. In this case, “the mitigation measure were inherent, as they are on every flight”.
There is always a chance of someone being covid-positive on a flight, and in many cases there is someone, he noted. But because of the social distancing, lack of interaction, the PPE and other measures, along with the fact that the crew are all vaccinated and tested monthly, public health has said there is no need for them to be quarantined or additionally tested.
However, aware of the community’s concerns about the positive traveller, Whorms said that after processing more than 10,000 travellers since the repatriation flights began, they were surprised by this situation. He said the airline needed to get the information to understand how it happened and said that they should “get to the bottom of it” by tomorrow.
See full CIGTV press briefing below:
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Category: Health, Local News, Medical Health, Travel
The. authorities know exactly who patient zero is in this case. It did nor mysteriously pop up out of no where. Please be truthful and tell us how contacts of a traveler came to be infected and stop allowing the hysteria in the community to spread like the virus.
For any that are waiting for this announcement
“The UK’s four chief medical officers have decided that children aged 12 to 15 years olds can be offered Covid vaccinations. All children of this age group will be offered a first vaccine immediately, to be administered by the schools vaccination programme.”
The Singapore government today that even with an 80% vaccination rate, opening has brought a significant number of additional Covid cases:
• 774 cases are currently warded in hospital. There are currently 57 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation, and 8 in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).
• Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated who became severely ill or died is 5.4%, while that for the fully vaccinated is 1.0%.
• As of 13 September 2021, 12pm, the Ministry of Health has detected a total of 607 new cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore, with 534 in the community, 63 in the migrant worker dormitories and 10 imported cases.
https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/update-on-local-covid-19-situation-(13-sep-2021)
This is what Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member wrote in the Atlantic about the futility in pursuing a zero-COVID policy.
“In our large, open, and globally connected society, getting to zero COVID, the goal that Australia and New Zealand have pursued, is as politically unrealistic as it is biologically implausible. Americans are mostly done with the onerous shutdowns that such a goal would require. The virus has now spread so widely in the world that even tight, long-lasting limits on Americans’ movement—restrictions far beyond what we would tolerate—could not stamp it out entirely. Instead, SARS-CoV-2 will become an endemic virus, settling alongside the other four strains of coronaviruses that circulate widely among us.”
Covid may not be departing this planet. That does not mean that we have to welcome it to our shores. Remember US Covid policy has resulted in some 600,000 dead.
That would require staying closed forever. You are going to have a tourism industry anymore if visitors have to quarantine 6.5 days in a small hotel room (if vaxxed).
I disagree. We could have a very active tourism product by remaining covid-free and not just an open free-for-all. People would pay very good money to come to a guaranteed covid-free environment. Wealthy people with plenty of money and time on their hands could enjoy several months in Cayman protecting their health. It could be the perfect transition Cayman has been looking for, to transition away from thousands of cheap cruise shippers to a low volume high spending higher quality tourist.
Its the ideal time to reposition Cayman as the safest place in the world to visit.
2:31? You are delusional??? Covid is a virus. The virus is in Cayman. You there nor anywhere else is covid free. We all have to focus on treatment.
We were COVID free but were foolish enough to elect a government lacking the good sense to even consider the excellent ideas put forward by 2:31
@ 2:31 p.m. I totally agree! In fact I have been advocating similarly. However, we have landed in the hands of a government (current administration and opposition collectively) largely lacking in vision. It appears that the focus of both arms of government is to push vaccines which are fast becoming ineffective. We WERE enjoying the freedom of a healthy, virus free environment, which we all sacrificed and worked hard to build, only to have it destroyed by foolish reopening decisions.
2.31 “….a guaranteed covid-free environment”
I’ve heard and read some nonsense since this pandemic kicked off but that is the sickest, most inane, uneducated post I’ve seen on the topic. Have you not learned anything at all about Covid.
Even CNN nor FOX would be that dumb to come up with something so unbelievable.
We’re not closed. We impose a relatively brief quarantine on incoming travelers in light of a global pandemic. If you need to travel, travel.
“even tight, long-lasting limits on Americans’ movement—restrictions far beyond what we would tolerate”
Americans did not limit nor had any retrictions to their movement that’s why the situation in America is that way now!
The situation in America is because of those that refuse to get vaccinated and because of the high number of people that live closely together.
Given that COVID is not going away, ever, I would like to hear people’s plan as to when to reopen? COVID will continue to have waves with peaks and troughs.
US football stadiums were PACKED for college games on Saturday and NFL on Sunday, as were Premier League stadiums in the UK. People arent living in perpetual fear in the real world but rather moving on with life.
I don’t think it’s fear as much as joy. Until recently, many of us had the joy of living our lives entirely free from having to even think about COVID, while the rest of the world has had to make daily calculations about risk and exposure. If you’ve traveled recently, you know what a toll that kind of living can take on ones mental health.
We are one of the few places in the world that can actually stop COVID at its borders. I say we take advantage of that luxury.
Cayman- 729 cases of covid. That is not stopping covid at the border.
You understand that, with the exception of the initial cases in the community and these three most recent ones, all of these cases were contained by our quarantine procedures at the border, right?
Until this week, there has been no know community transmission in Cayman. We had stopped it at the border. Stop spreading misinformation.
How do you know that covid isn’t going anywhere ever? Humble yourself. You don’t know what you are talking about just like 99% of the other commenters.
You’d think people would come to cns looking for information, not to act like they are some anonymous authority figure with all the answers. I mean maybe you did spend years studying medicine with a specialization in infectious diseases but I doubt that. If that was the case I think you’d be too busy actually helping instead of being here talking out of your ass as if your intuition is the end all be all.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member, and one of the pre-eminent most respected voices on the pandemic (which is why he is the chief expert for CBS news and CNBC)
“In our large, open, and globally connected society, getting to zero COVID, the goal that Australia and New Zealand have pursued, is as politically unrealistic as it is biologically implausible. Americans are mostly done with the onerous shutdowns that such a goal would require. The virus has now spread so widely in the world that even tight, long-lasting limits on Americans’ movement—restrictions far beyond what we would tolerate—could not stamp it out entirely. Instead, SARS-CoV-2 will become an endemic virus, settling alongside the other four strains of coronaviruses that circulate widely among us.”
Let’s be clear- no one goes to the airport with a positive test result expecting to get on a flight these days . UNLESS they had made arrangements for someone to turn a blind eye for some reason ($?) upon them checking in . Which means that the staff in Jam are culpable ….
KX needs to investigate and discipline staff properly . Whorms etc cannot just sweep this plunder the table .
The woman who got on the plane with a positive result should be jailed just like someone knowingly breaching quarantine.
No 10:09 a.m. Cayman Airways is responsible for the breach and should not be allowed to investigate itself! The case should have immediately been passed to RCIPS for an in-depth investigation. This is a very serious matter and should be treated as such.
Except the investigators will likely be from there also.
News out of Bermuda today. (No quarantine for vaxxed in Bermuda).
“Public schools to stay shut after increase in Covid-19 cases”
https://www.royalgazette.com/education/news/article/20210911/preschools-could-open-as-normal-next-week/
The UK National Statistics Office have released documentation showing that 98.8% of people dying from Covid are unvaccinated!
“People who were fully vaccinated accounted for just 1.2% of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England in the first seven months of this year.”
How can anyone thumbs down a factual comment? Because they don’t like inconvenient facts that disagree with their own views?
People are ignoring the rules now. A spouse is quarantining with an under age child is one section of the family home for 14 days. The other spouse who only needed to quarantine for 5 days is living in another section of the family home. This should not be allowed to happen but is happening. Some people consider themselves above the law.
Quarantine address/details of who is in the home has to be approved by Travel Cayman. Are they doing what they are paid to do?
of course not
Singapore provides a cautionary reminder of why reopening in the middle of the current Delta wave is not a smart move.
“Infections in Singapore over the weekend were 10 times higher than a month ago and the number of seriously ill patients has also increased, Reuters reports.”
Singapore has less than 10 people in ICU and while cases are going up the number of serious cases are still low.
That is due to the high vaccination rate.
https://www.msn.com/en-sg/money/other/seriously-ill-covid-19-patients-double-in-vaccine-pace-setter-singapore/ar-AAOnSqu?ocid=uxbndlbing
Cherry picking headlines or quotes from articles that match your agenda/narrative doesn’t really work.
So out of almost 6 million people Singapore has 54 cases needing oxygen and 7 out of 300 ICU beds occupied.
No surprisingly it is the 500k people who are eligible for vaccination in Singapore that haven’t had shots yet that are the main concern.
So out of 500k people who are unvaccinated, 10 are unvaccinated? Just goes to show no need for vaccination… not even 1% of people
“It is the first responsibility of government in a democratic society to protect and safeguard the lives of its citizens. That is where the public interest lies.” So said Lord Bingham.
It seems that our government chose to ignore or was unaware of its first responsibility when it set a date from dropping quarantine in the middle of a Covid wave.
Well the government made vaccine freely available to anyone who wanted it – might be said to have discharged their duty in that regard. Your Lord Bingham was also the chap who thought the death penalty should be abolished, irrespective of how effective that was in protecting the lives of law abiding citizens.
The EU is banning travel from the US due to the Delta wave and our government is planning on dropping quarantine for them. Ridiculous.
“Earlier in September the European Union recommended that US visitors should be banned from nonessential travel to its member states due to rising Covid-19 cases in the States.
The news has prompted various European countries to update travel restrictions for Americans, while some have prohibited entry to US travelers completely.”
You conveniently forgot to mention the fact that it only applies to the unvaccinated and is not a complete ban, only a requirement for quarantine. So basically the same approach that is proposed in Cayman. But don’t let facts obstruct your agenda.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/eu-us-travel-restrictions.html
The editor of the Lancet medical journal has provided a context for the proposed October dropping of quarantine using the UK as an example. Living with Covid does not seem like a very good idea to me.
“He told Sky News:
We’re the second highest number of infections of any country in the world after the United States, we’re seeing hospitalisations rise by about 5% every week, there are 1,000 new deaths every single week, we’ve got 1,000 people on ventilators across the country. In other words, the pandemic hasn’t gone away yet.”
Voluntary quarantine is suspect. BBC this morning
“Nearly a third of people arriving in England and Northern Ireland as the coronavirus Delta variant took off may have broken quarantine rules.
More than 300,000 cases were passed to investigators between March and May, according to figures seen by the BBC.”