Traveller isolation staying till year-end

| 14/09/2021 | 366 Comments
Cayman News Service
Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee at Tuesday’s press briefing

(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government will not be lifting quarantine measures until toward the end of the year and in the short term will be extending the isolation period for vaccinated travellers from five to seven days. Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee revealed that three more adults and two more children had tested positive today and there were now seven separate households where someone has the virus in what looks to be three unrelated separate incidences of community transmission.

The first person who tested positive remains in hospital but is doing well, as is the symptomatic student from George Town Primary School. The other two positive children are asymptomatic and contact tracing and testing is continuing at the school. Tracing and testing continues on the three additional adult cases, two of which are connected to the first community outbreak.

Cayman is now in a period of low level community transmission, according to Dr Lee, who noted that this leak into the community is relatively recent, based on the viral loads that are emerging in the testing process of those who are infected.

He said that for all of these months, testing of local residents going out as well as front-line workers has been going on and there has not been one positive case in those screen tests until last Wednesday. This further suggests that the virus, which is largely the Delta variant, has only recently arrived.

As he explained the thinking behind the decision to pause the current opening plans in the current Phase 3 and leave Phase 4 until the end of the year, Premier Wayne Panton said he believed the leak was likely as a result of quarantine breaches. Given the levels of anxiety and the concerns about the country’s level of preparation for a community outbreak sooner than anticipated, he said it was decided that the plan to lift isolation requirements would be delayed.

He said these were “very challenging times” for everyone, as we have not had to deal with these concerns for some time. “But we knew this day was going to come,” he said.

However, the day has come sooner than expected and he said government wants to further increase vaccine numbers, start the booster programme and implement mask mandates, social distancing protocols and reduce crowd numbers via the regulations to get the current spread under control before opening up any further.

He said the quarantine was to be extended to seven days to offer additional time for incubation, and the geo-tags would also be reintroduced when new regulations are rolled out later this week. He also spoke about the need to build a wall of vaccination around the vulnerable and children, as he begged more people to get vaccinated.

Panton added, “We need to be cautious and carefully consider how we address community spread.”

Governor Martyn Roper said that the virus could also have arrived illegally as a result of criminal activity. Without spelling it out, Roper implied those smuggling drugs, guns and people could also be the source of the return of COVID-19.

But however it arrived, it was now here, he said, and Public Health England had set out clear points for government to consider before moving toward further reopening. The health service must be properly resourced, the vaccination rate of those under 30 needs to be as high as possible and the situation regarding infection rates in feeder countries must be factored in.

In all three considerations Cayman needs more time. While the HSA is ready to treat patients, the staffing levels for public health are lower than the minister said was needed. While efforts are underway to recruit people from other sectors of the healthcare profession into the vaccination work, as well as tracing and testing, healthcare workers are in short supply the world over. The level of vaccination among the under thirties is still relatively low and Cayman’s feeder countries are all battling huge issues with the virus, especially Jamaica and the USA.

Education Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly also confirmed that GTPS will remain closed on Wednesday as testing continues at the school but noted that students had transitioned to online learning.

Technical difficulties interrupted the CIGTV YouTube broadcast of the press briefing below but the audio continues throughout. The Q&A part of the broadcast was recorded and will be available later.


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Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (366)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    So they make a plan and run backwards as soon as they get a case. Didn’t Panton say that the Phase 3 would allow for expanded travel and a chance to observe the needed levels of quarantine and medical services (something to that effect). One person in the hospital, one symptomatic and the plan that had been pushed back from September 9 to October 14, is now January of 2021.
    CIG is past the point of killing tourism, they have now moved on to killing the real estate market.

    • Anonymous says:

      @ 7:31am To be honest, the real estate market needs to be blown the F up. Locals are priced out of the market and a reset is needed. Cost of living is through the roof. A year from now, not only expats will be running from here, but locals too. What is happening now is a result of none of the predecessor governments putting plans in place for Caymanians. We have been sold out by our own to the highest bidder.

    • Anonymous says:

      Killing the financial services sector as well. Struggle to retain expat staff already – and forget about hiring new people. Or being able to travel and see clients or win new work.

  2. Anonymous says:

    The pro-open bots are out again.

    • Anonymous says:

      More accurately, those who don’t receive handouts!

    • Anonymous says:

      Well it’s still early. I expect your lot will pipe up around 10:30 once they’ve got into work and had their second breakfast.

      • Anonymous says:

        This lot is up a long time before you stumble out of your daily hangover on whatever your type will drink and snort the night before.

        And we don’t write posts during the day as my lot is too busy trying to make a living.

        See you again tomorrow at 7am. Expecting your post by 9:30am

  3. Bruce McDonald says:

    Want to get the number up to 80%? Mandate that all Government employees and employees of companies who have government contracts be vaccinated. All the leaders are doing is talking, as politicians are prone to do. Grow a set and do something positive other that killing the economy and convincing tourists to look elsewhere to spend their money. Many tourists will find somewhere else they like as much as Cayman and you may never see them again.

    • Anonymous says:

      As another commenter on this forum wrote, one of the great attractions to Cayman was the ease at which you could fly from here to Miami , N.Y. or London, further afield with relative ease. You used to be able to go from Cayman to Asia in a little over a 30 hour travel day and less to come back.
      And what a pleasure it was to actually arrive back in Cayman then. The travel which people had hoped to be able to engage in between October & the end of the year, with some relative easing of the restrictions now being gone will , regrettably , have some very large impacts . If the government is going to continually hamper the ability for the territory to recover and demonstrate its ability to adapt & live with Covid , from this juncture many will just sadly decide they have had enough of the place.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why bother? CIG doesn’t care if you are vaccinated any more. They won’t open if they had 95% because they would move to the next excuse – booster jabs.

      • Anonymous says:

        correct…vax rate doesn’t matter. pact have lost all credibility and can’t be trusted going forward.

  4. Ted says:

    So is that it then – no Christmas season?

  5. Anonymous says:

    Broadway is back in case you didn’t notice. Stay closed as long as you wish, nobody would come anyway.

  6. Open the border now says:

    Utterly ridiculous. Goal posts moving again. Community transmission was always going to happen once we opened. Now we seem to have gone back to trying to keep all Covid out again??

    What does delaying opening to next year achieve? Covid will come whether we open October or January. Makes no difference.

  7. Anonymous says:

    The most important and accurate speech was Dr. Lee’s, having experienced six weeks abroad, dining out, visiting friends and family. Yet NOTHING is mentioned in the press! He said we could live with Covid in the community! The less truth that is published, the more people will be (and are) afraid of this virus!

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s a shame that he said and did that. He should be setting an example. I’m very disappointed in him. He should have worn masks while he was in the UK knowing that vaccinated people can still get the virus. Also, he only did the 5 day quarantine and was the in the room with everyone.
      The take away from the press conference is that we aren’t prepared for serious cases. We only have 41 ventilators and not enough staff. Our medical system is not prepared for the risk. PACT wasn’t prepared and neither are the people here. There should’ve been a gradual easing back into masks and sanitizing. This is what caused the panic. Lack of preparedness. People are coughing every where not covering their mouths.

  8. Father Ted says:

    So what does “year end” mean – Christmas, or not until 2022?

  9. Anonymous says:

    Thank God for making them see sense. We were not prepared for an October opening.

    • Anonymous says:

      And what will prepare you for a November opening? We are as prepared as we are ever going to be. We have a very high vaccination rate and our health care system is prepared. What is going to change between now and November, December or January?
      We need a plan rather than the emotional knee jerk political reaction that occurred yesterday!

      • Anonymous says:

        In the briefing where it was mentioned that this outbreak has been a test for the islands and resources for Public Health and showed they were not ready for a full reopening. That’s why they are emphasizing the need for to get vaccinated to reduce the probability of the most serious of cases.

  10. mark sayers says:

    I was really looking forward to coming over in November, not sure this is even going to happen now.

    Gutted.

  11. Anonymous says:

    This isn’t new. Covid been in the community, but no one been getting tested when they had their allergies/sinus infection/cold because government was bent on the “covid free-no community spread” for a year. If people would have known there were cases in the community, they wouldn’t have just shrugged off all their illnesses. How many had these over the past year? It took an elderly lady going to the hospital for someone else to get tested and then everyone else panicked that had any of the above and went to get tested. Oh my, covid in the community. Gee whiz. To think, no community spread was just plain foolish. Now, panic sets in, border stays closed due to over reaction, and sets everything back.

    • Anonymous says:

      Very well said, not enough people know this. They stopped testing over the summer. Now all of a sudden the start testing again.

  12. Anonymous says:

    From the outside, it doesn’t even look like Cayman is doing that well. Violent crime, drugs, truly staggering levels of road traffic accidents (especially under the influence), it can’t be just a coincidence that these are all happening while the population is trapped on a tiny island. People are starting to say that Cayman’s isn’t even that attractive as a holiday destination any more. Yes there are many who are happy to live without tourism but it’s a grim scenario for people who need to travel for other reasons.

    • Anonymous says:

      Indeed. Cayman faces a lot of headwinds. The west of the island has be ruined by overdevelopment to the extent that SMB is disappearing.
      Crime is a serious issue, as is traffic and pollution due to the abject failure of politicians to do anything other than line their own (and their friends’) pockets.

      Cost of living is exceptionally high by global standards and is spiralling out of control, in part due to rampant property speculation that makes housing simply unaffordable.

      Decades of poor, incompetent or simply corrupt government has taken its toll on the education system and a class of disenfranchised, poorly educated Caymanians with very limited prospects is growing.

    • Anonymous says:

      As another commenter on this forum wrote, one of the great attractions to Cayman was the ease at which you could fly from here to Miami , N.Y. or London, further afield with relative ease. You used to be able to go from Cayman to Asia in a little over a 30 hour travel day and less to come back.
      And what a pleasure it was to actually arrive back in Cayman then. The travel which people had hoped to be able to engage in between October & the end of the year, with some relative easing of the restrictions now being gone will , regrettably , have some very large impacts . If the government is going to continually hamper the ability for the territory to recover and demonstrate its ability to adapt & live with Covid , from this juncture many will just sadly decide they have had enough of the place.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why is it grim for people who need to travel? Anyone can leave if they need to. I know people who left the island to go on vacation and see friends in the US last year and earlier this year and came back here with no problems.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Clearly they have no plan. They pushing us to get shots but still scared.

    Who the hell need 3 shots a year for a flu?

  14. Anonymous says:

    Covid is here to stay and like the rest of the world we must learn to live with it. For those that have been able to travel outside Cayman this year you will see countries adapting and living normally with the virus without fear or over reaction when Infact they have thousands / millions of positive cases and the hospitals are not over flowing due to the success of the vaccine. A very small percentage of people with possibly underlying health conditions and unvaccinated are being hospitalized just as people are annually with pneumonia and in some cases dying. The death rate in the coming year from missed cancer, or dementia diagnosis due to Covid restrictions will be far higher than Covid deaths . It is not selfish to want our borders to open and it does not mean we do not care about children who are unvaccinated. It means we understand the minimal risks involved as vaccinated travelers and that with an island that relies on tourism and a financial sector that relies on importing labour and the need for them to travel for family reasons and student needs . Pushing the opening date for airlines to return or increasing 5 days to 7 days is an over reaction to a handful of Covid cases. Are there more cases in Cayman, yes most likely …. how severely ill are the positive cases discovered …. It seems they are all recovering at home apart from one lady in hospital for other medical reasons other than Covid 19. This small handful shows you that the current level of fear, anxiety, decision making in Cayman is out of proportion to the actual illness in vaccinated people and young children and healthy adults who are not vaccinated. We have also had over 500 people in quarantine test positive ….. all recovered. Get vaccinated, wear masks indoors at supermarkets and shops, wash your hands and you will see that life will go on relatively normally with Covid 19 all around us. We must live with it as it is here to stay.

    • think 4 yourself says:

      well in that case, with all yours comments about the rest of the world living around covid-19. make it easy on your self and leave Cayman and go join the rest of the world!! we can do without you, and the rest of imported labors…. our young people need jobs opportunities too why you never mention them..

      • Anonymous says:

        Noone stops them from getting entry level jobs like everyone else, or do you think straight to CEO because of their passport?
        Be nice. With foreigners thousands of jobs will leave too. I wonder if that crossed your mind.

    • Naya Boy says:

      Your little synopsis is about to be dismantled.This is more wide spread than you think and what many do not understand is because of Cayman relatively small size the disruption to Cayman is unfortunately magnified.Unfortunately for those self centered narcissistic imbeciles amongst us who believe others should suffer and die so they can get back to “NORMAL “ routine Good luck ! On Top of all this Mother Nature always reminds us of just how fragile our existence is and the weather never cooperates! Standby for another blow to our convenient lifestyles. Please be ever so thankful for every day you awake and see and breathe it’s a gift that we don’t appreciate in our self destructive Utopia !

  15. Anonymous says:

    Closed til of end of year?? So what is now happening with BA flights?? So now will not be able to go for Xmas again… 2 years!!! Hope government will be paying for any flights cancelled and compensating for all the family upset that goes with it. All for 4 or 5 positives and reporting those are not even sick. What do you think you were going to do, if now checking on improving health staff etc after 18 months and so few cases. No plan but paranoia panic!

    • Anonymous says:

      If BA cancels your flight, they have to refund you or get you to your destination another way. Check EU261 legislation.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Could the government please consider introducing a nighttime (7:00pm unless with parents) curfew for children 17 and younger? Too many young kids are out at night, and this could contribute to the spread of the virus.

  17. Anonymous says:

    PACT catch fright lol no sah

  18. Anonymous says:

    sp panton is basing his plans on peoples fears and anxietys…and not medical science????
    welcome to wonderland people.
    someone tell him 7 day qauarantine makes as much sense as 3 days or 5 days or 10 days…

  19. Anonymous says:

    Meanwhile bookings to all the rest of the Caribbean just went up.

  20. Robert Mugabe IV says:

    This is getting totally crazy now. Who’s making he desicions? Who are the people advising the Pact? Is it Dr Lee ? all by his lonesome. And the Governor talking about the return of Covid-19, blaming illegal activity like gun running etc etc, was it not an illegal act for the positive female to board a Caman Airways flight. Is that an illegal act or not. I’d like CNS to confirm that if they could. But getting back to the Governor,,,”the return of Covid-19” !!!! It has never returned Gov because it’s never left and guess what? It never is going to leave.
    Every variant of Covid 19 will be here at some stage. There is NOTHING we can do to stop them arriving. We don’t know who will get which variant or when, scientific fact is most of will never know we’ve had one unless we get an anti body test ffs.
    Whether we have a 5, 7, 25 or 27 day quarantines. It’s moot really.
    Quarantining vaxxed people is basically saying the vaccines are a bust. Not a great advert for pushing towards that 80%…….or has that already become a number that’s going to be soon forgotten and obsolete?
    Roll on Christmas so I can watch all the kids socially distancing from masked Santa Claus.

  21. Anonymous says:

    So some folks were too selfish to stick with the quarantine measures. Well I hope they are happy now. Maybe they have even infected some of their own family. Could not wait a few days to safely visit! What dim wits. You know who you are.

  22. Anonymous says:

    Turks and Caicos will have been open for one and a half years IF we open in January.

    I guess they have different UK health advisers to us??

    • Anonymous says:

      The UK had a press briefing yesterday outlining their success and continued plans to offer FREE test “kits” it is a home kit.
      Where are our free kits to re-open GTPS???

      Boris in London said UK will continue with FREE testing. Every school child in England simply can take a Monday AM test – send QR code to school (most required it all last school year) and we have happy healthy kids IN SCHOOL.

  23. Red pill says:

    Go to miami and see a society living with covid and thriving.

    • Anonymous says:

      That you DeSantis?

    • Anonymous says:

      I relocated to Miami so i can travel for work. I have a global team and can’t do everything virtually. It was going to be until reopening in October – now I am starting to wonder if I should make it permanent. certainly way cheaper living here, and if I am going to have to wear a mask in Cayman anyway may as well be here where there is less chance of a complete lockdown every time the wind changes direction.

  24. Anonymous says:

    So what will change in January with Covid? Will people here be less likely to panic? Gone from ‘we have to learn to live with Covid’ to ‘Covid is here and that’s a game changer’. Makes no sense

  25. Aarg says:

    Pathetic. Nothing will change between now and forevermore other than a small window for those too stupid to get the jab to see sense.

  26. Anonymous says:

    Bermuda evening update (our Overseas Territory cousins, same population size, same vax rate. No quarantine for vaxxed…for now). Getting in very, very bad shape (worst part of their pandemic).

    412 new cases over three days, 948 active cases (new high), 48 in hospital (new high), 10 in ICU (new high), 1 new death. Healthcare system becoming overwhelmed “… asked families able to discharge relatives from the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital to do so.”

    Three interesting charts in this story below. Things have exploded in just two weeks.

    https://www.royalgazette.com/health/news/article/20210914/covid-19-one-death-948-cases-a-new-high/

    • Anonymous says:

      This might be us next week – with our airport closed. You just don’t get it. Covid is inevitable!

  27. Anonymous says:

    Clueless government. Our Chief Medical Officer says it’s possible to live with covid with correct protocols and in the next sentence, our gov shuts down reopening plans. They have no idea what they are doing and seem to think that the situation will change come January. Stop focusing on keeping Cayman covid free and focus on how to reopen and live with Covid. This government is sending Caymans tourism industry to death while the rest of the world looks on and moves on.

  28. Anonymous says:

    What lies we have been told.

    Last year November we are opening.
    When the vaccine comes we are opening.
    When we get to 80% we are opening.

    Our tourists are calling us a JOKE. We have now lost the first half of 2022 and may as well stay closed till winter 2022.

  29. Anonymous says:

    Caymanians screaming open the borders, open the borders, yet the same caymanians can’t keep their asses home when they are to be in quarantine or caymanians visiting those who are in quarantine…this is what you get when you don’t follow the rules…go for it Sabrina with your stupid s..t “oh people become lax and they dont’ wear a mask”, when the cayman compass told you they werent wearing the mask on public transportation when in fact the government stated it was mandatory…

    Cayman sinking and sinking quickly

  30. Anonymous says:

    Just get rid of the uneducated, unvaccinated Jamaicans.

    • Anonymous says:

      it’s not Jamaicans that are breaking quarantine. these r your people.

    • Anonymous says:

      My helper leaves next week. Would you like her job?

    • Anonymous says:

      Stop being a racist xenophobic prick

    • Anonymous says:

      Uneducated? Dwl. Stop being a troll.
      Also all the Jamaicans I know in cayman are vaccinated.
      Maybe you can provide some statistics showing the nationality of the vaccinated population? Share your knowledge o great, educated one. Wise and wonderful one 🙄

  31. Anonymous says:

    So in summary:

    CIG knew and anticipated that community transmission would occur in October when quarantine was going to be dropped, and repeatedly said so, including today, but when the first cases of community transmission happen they abandon that plan until at least January.

    CIG state that they expect the community cases arise because of illegal cross border movements – which deferring border reopening will do absolutely nothing to stop.

    CIG & RCIPS state that quarantine breaches are almost all due to people visiting those in quarantine, rather than travelers breaching quarantine conditions, but nevertheless increase the quarantine period to 7 days – notwithstanding that such an increase will do nothing to deter such breaches.

    Knee-jerk, irrational, and ill considered. Panton is a disaster, and as for those ministers he keeps dragging onto the press briefing – good god, they make John John look like JFK.

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s been clear for some time that there is an agenda to run down regular tourism until the hotels and tourist businesses finally go belly up and replace short-stay visitors with high net worth individuals who stay for several months of the year. There seems to be endless reasons not to open the borders.

  32. Anonymous says:

    pact’s failure is now fully complete. it was dead once they brought in 5 day quarantine…they have failed on vaccination plans and on phase 3 and 4 of re-opening.

  33. Anonymous says:

    and no mention of social restrictions for unvaxxinated….zzzzzz
    the only people that should wear masks indoors at this stage are the unvaxxinated…just look at every other major 1st world country.

    • Anonymous says:

      You can catch and spread the virus too, imbecile. It’s people like you that will cause these Islands to remain closed with no end in sight. Think you’re so high and might with the jab. News Flash! The first community cases were from jabbed persons!

      • Anonymous says:

        the rest of the worls disagrees with you. the selfish unvaxxed are a risk to themselves and others…hence should be isolated

  34. Anonymous says:

    You have basically wasted all those vaccines for nothing, the government should be ashamed of themselves. COVID is here to stay. I feel guilty that I taken a vaccine from a person that does not lead such a privileged life as a caymanian where the government can close the border for 8 cases. WAKE UP CAYMAN, THIS IS NOT GOING AWAY ANY TIME SOON. LET THE VACCINE DO IT’S JOB

  35. Anonymous says:

    Haha! Cayman owns the wingnuts! So sorry money grabbers and anons – the government has more sense than you! How crazy is that!

  36. Anonymous says:

    By which time, efficacy done on 90% of those responsible enough to get vaccinated and we start the PACT cyclorama madness all over again from the beginning.

    • Anonymous says:

      And there will one more additional class of citizen to hate on: the vaccinated but non-booster villain

      When will the CIG loans come due? That will be the opening date.

  37. Anonymous says:

    There is no closing plan, they are flying by the seat of their pants.

    A few weeks ago we heard more than two unrelated outbreaks involving two hospitalisations would be a trigger.

    Trigger to what?

    Now we have some cases and a single hospitalisation and we are in “level 1 community spread”. Was that the plan? Was the plan determined months ago to bring back masks and limit indoor and outdoor gatherings to the numbers mentioned, or was that decided in cabinet today!

    What is the plan when we hit level two?

    The only reason nobody is mentioning lockdowns is… That nobody is mentioning a lockdown! Yet.

    A side note I heard today of a vaccine hesitant (very proud and vocal) bartender who just got his permit renewed! What happened to the law that was brought up months ago about the requirement for permit holders to be vaccinated?

    They look more lost up there than when Alden was reciting the death counts and the minister of health was quoting scripture.

  38. Anonymous says:

    Yeah because the guys running canoes to Jamaica and back are quarantining are they? So instead of stoping the canoes they’re blaming legit travelers and punishing them. I’m guessing they all know who it was but keeping quiet for some reason, must be connected. What ever happened to the guy who broke out of quarantine twice anyway?

    • Anonymous says:

      Guy who broke out of quarantine twice was transferred to supervision of the mental health court – so basically nothing.

    • Anonymous says:

      I thought anti-vaxxers were the conspiracy theorists. Let me see if I got this right. CIG is blaming legit travellers for community transmission and punishing them and knows who truly started the spread but keeping quiet? Riiiight… You can’t make this stuff up.

  39. Anonymous says:

    Complete overreaction. My 2 cents:

    A) the phase 1, 2, 3, 4 was always ill thought out. Strange that only yesterday the government said they were consulting the uk for advice. Why would you ever think October 14 no quarantine as a blanket vaccinated policy was a sensible plan when everyone else has a traffic light system, which for cayman could have looked like, for example, Florida and Peru 14 days, uk and New York if vaccinated 5 days, encourage cayman residents to fill BA flights to London and return with 5 days quarantine and maybe 7 for their family and visitors.

    B) it’s shocking how the people of cayman, and I make no apology in categorizing largely those who originate from here rather than the high earning expat community, avoided getting vaccinated and tried to push a no Covid closed policy for so long. It was never possible… we would have had community spread if you locked down everyone since March 2020 and closed the borders entirely. Look at New Zealand. The idea these islands could avoid community transmission forever is quite frankly ridiculous.

    C) the lack of understanding of the world, both economically and pandemically, by some inhabitants of cayman is worrying. As the usual one hour delay to the 9am press conference rolled on today (why can’t the last, or current, CI GOV at least attempt to give a press briefing on time), people commented down the you tube link on CIG page saying things like:

    I) trust in god not vaccines
    Ii) why are there not tests for delta and specific variants – how will they ever know which variant?
    iii) sars-Covid 2 and coronavirus are different variants of Covid and separate things not linked
    iv) the vaccinated are more dangerous because they don’t have kids

    Truly shocking,

    It’s the above average lack of education and lack of a clear policy that will cost cayman unless people grow up.

    • Anonymous says:

      Uk is just as bad as Florida. Love how people just pretend Uk is the cats meow all the time. I was just there and they are behaving much worse then those in Florida.

      • Anonymous says:

        What a load of rubbish. The vast majority of UK adults are fully vaxxed and restrictions have largely been lifted.

      • Anonymous says:

        Things are fine in Florida – not sure where you are getting your news from? Life going on as normal, plenty places to get the vaccine, and also monoclonal antibody treatment centers to help with treatment, thanks to De Santis.

  40. Anonymous says:

    So what’s going to be different in January. We will be a sterile little island in a world swamped with Covid-19.
    We need to push the vaccinations and learn to live with it, otherwise we are just delaying the inevitable, or are we going to never open up again!?!?

  41. Soon to be unemployed says:

    Tourism and events are dead.

    Happy days.

  42. Anonymous says:

    The CI Government has been moving the goal posts since March 2020 and this is just the latest example of boil the frog syndrome we are now firmly stuck in.
    The dilemma for this and any other CI govt is that they are so close to people that they literally cannot not know people who will be affected by Covid when it occurs. But Covid is not going to go away anytime soon. So they keep kicking the ball down the field because they have no other game plan but to delay, delay and delay. They hope that they will be able to have a risk free reopening but it will NEVER happen.
    The alternative has to be to stick to the plan. Set a reopening date of 1st January 2022 and stick to it. This will force everyone to focus on this as when we rejoin the rest of the world which is pretty much just getting on with it now. If we don’t hold them accountable they will just move the date AGAIN! And before you know it Cayman will have been closed off for 2 years!!
    If CI Govt doesn’t stick to this plan then it needs to recompense all small and medium sized businesses that depend on inward investment and spending, for all lost revenues since the date that they hit 80% fully vaccinated. There can be no excuse not to reopen after this subjective but important target is reached, however much they would wish to kick the ball down the field again.

  43. Beaumont Zodecloun says:

    This is a measured response to recent localised conditions, imo.

    I am sorry our health sanctuary has been breeched, but I am glad for this — at least temporary — address to the increased risk to the communities. Seven days is not enough, imo, but we’ll likely set the limit based upon local data.

  44. Anonymous says:

    Are the extra 3 adult cases vaccinated and are they symptomatic? We need to know such info!

  45. The Fit will hit the Shan next week says:

    When we have 25+ cases of community spread.

    We will see if the Gov’t blinks even more from their plans.

  46. Anonymous says:

    Where children are concerned.

    US data

    Under 18 deaths from Covid-19 20 months: 412

    Under 18 deaths from flu 2017 12 months 643

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-from-covid-by-age-us/

    https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden-averted/2017-2018.htm

    What did we do about the flu prior to covid?

    • Anonymous says:

      Get vaccinated against it, try to stay healthy, stay away from kids, wash your hands frequently. Did I miss anything?

  47. Anonymous says:

    Patheic. Covid is unfortunately here to stay, we better get used to it.

    Bowing to the mob pressure from those who want to hide under their bed and await the end the pandemic in 2050 is just weak and callus.

    True leadership would be to go ahead with the reopening plan as is and get back to rejoining the rest of inhabitants on the planet!

  48. Anonymous says:

    Our. Borders. Are. Never. Opening.

    RIP to any tourism businesses. Also interested to watch the amount of forclosures increase – i can only presume that these rental properties (predominatly owed by locals) that they lease to tourists will be on their last legs and well delinquient in mortgage payments. Banks seem willing to just allow customers to stay delinquient but it will eventually end.

  49. ELVIS says:

    so is the proposed October opening still in place? urghhhhh

    • Anonymous says:

      Nope. Goal post moved again. And again. And again.
      Covid not leaving.

    • Anonymous says:

      No it has been deferred until at least end of year. The “reopening” plan for October was just to remove the quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated visitors. Only when the quarantine period is been eliminated can you realistically expect any volume of tourists. Most tourists are not going to want to spend their first week of vacation locked in a hotel room. So essentially that’s been deferred until the end of the year at the earliest.

      Might get a trickle of visitors. But 7 days means 8.5 real days. Unless you’re renting a house we can’t really expect many visitors to arrive.

    • Anon says:

      No. Can you read?

    • Anonymous says:

      No I don’t think thats going to happen

    • Anonymous says:

      Did you even read the headline?

    • Anonymous says:

      8:24pm…nope no opening

    • Anonymous says:

      This really is beyond a joke. What did they think would happen when the island opened up in October – zero covid cases! There nèèds to be a clear and divined way forward.

    • Anon says:

      Sure, October 2022.

    • Anonymous says:

      From what they said, borders remain closed until end of year. Arrggghhh!!

    • Anonymous says:

      It’ll be only a technical opening as there still won’t be any flights!

    • elvis says:

      just asking. wasn’t sure. thanks. I’m clear now.

  50. Anonymous says:

    What a total over reaction. A 7 day quarantine doesn’t even make sense except maybe to kill tourism even more than a 5 day quarantine was already doing.

    • Anonymous says:

      Ask Bermuda how their tourism (combined with their 1000 active cases of covid and 27 people in hospital) is going

      • Anonymous says:

        Bermuda is at Level 3 (High) travel alert status with many travel advisory sites discouraging travel there. They are experiencing new highs in daily new case numbers. In other words, they are in a heap o’ trubble.

      • Anonymous says:

        Now lets ask bermuda how many have DIED.

        Ya…..didn’t think so. Hurts your idiotic narrative of scary covid.

    • Anonymous says:

      Increasing this to a week ( plus day of arrival plus day of exit test) is unnecessary and will ward off the few visitors that might’ve actually wanted to come here. Clearly the five day quarantine for vaccinated travelers was working because we’ve had this in place since June. That was not the issue.

      That’s affectively nine days of being locked down. I don’t see many people wanting to start a vacation in the Caribbean being locked in a room for that period of time.

      Worst case I thought keep the five days, or compromise down to three days plus testing for a few days once out. But to increase increase it?

      And now returning residence residence have to be subject to an extra two days as well?

    • Anonymous says:

      agreed, the opening plan shouldn’t change..places have not been proactive in making masks or sanitizing mandatory…if we actually did something proactive…

    • Anonymous says:

      Listen to those overlords

    • Anonymous says:

      Maybe check with Bermuda on how being open for tourism is going

      • Bill says:

        Maybe check with most of the rest of the world who are having to live with Covid. Measures can and should be in place to control it but you can’t hide from it for ever. We are 12 months behind the rest of the world in living with this disease – it is not going anywhere.

    • Anonymous says:

      A quarantine period doesn’t make sense.
      You can run but you can’t hide. Sorry to bust the caymam “bubble.”
      Also, goodnight to those remaining tourism businesses that are holding onto the last string. Very sorry but we bid you farewell.

    • Anonymous says:

      Wah wah wah wah wah, get used to it. Covid is your new bedfellow.

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