1,415 people isolate as COVID-19 cases rise

| 11/10/2021 | 152 Comments

(CNS): There are currently 167 people infected with SARS-Cov-2, another new high for the country, among 1,415 people currently in isolation. This is the first time since the beginning of the month that government has released the number of people isolating and many of these people are families quarantining as a result of the school outbreaks as well as travellers. According to the latest results, 89 people (53% of those who are positive) have symptoms of COVID-19.

Except for the patient who was recorded as the first local case since last year, none of these patients have been admitted to hospital. Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee confirmed earlier today that the two infants admitted last week had been released.

As at 8am this morning (Monday), out of 1,474 PCR tests carried out since the last report on Friday, 13 adults and ten children tested positive. Five of the 23 people were vaccinated and 18 unvaccinated. Nine of the new positive cases were in travellers and 14 cases were locally transmitted.

Meanwhile, in an effort to curb the community spread, Dr Lee is asking parents with children on half-term that are not already in isolation not to mix and mingle with people outside their family groups. He said this was in an effort to slow down the spread through the schools.

The mid-term break has been brought forward and extended for all government school students but most private sector schools are still open this week and will be taking the half-term holiday next week as scheduled.

See today’s update by Dr Lee below:

See the vaccine schedule on the HSA website here.

For more information on vaccines contact the HSA Communications team at
communications@hsa.ky

See here for more information on securely verifiable vaccination records.

Anyone with flu symptoms is urged to stay at home in the first instance and contact the 24 hour Flu Hotline or your general practitioner to speak to a health professional about those symptoms before visiting the flu or testing clinic.

Flu Hotline: 1-800-534-8600 or 345-947-3077 or 345-925- 6327 or email flu@hsa.ky
Callers will be screened for travel history and advised on what to do next.


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Category: Health, Local News, Medical Health

Comments (152)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Why is it unsustainable?

    • Anonymous says:

      Life..

    • C'Mon Now! says:

      Maybe because the isolation of contacts of potentially exposed people will grow exponentially and at some point we would all end up insolation.

      FWIW – two kids test positive in a class of 25, so we then isolate the other 23 children and their families, and so on and so on. The number starts to get very big and no one has said what we would do if say two people at a Foster’s location tested positive. Do we close the store and isolate all the workers and their families for two weeks?

      You have to wait two weeks to get out of isolation even if you test negative for Covid-19 and are vaccinated. A vaxed incoming traveller that might also have been a potential contact of someone with Covid-19 only isolates for 7 days at this point. So how does any of this make sense from CIG.

      Our Honourable Premier, Wayne where are my big boy Pantons, stated the day before this outbreak that everything was ready for an October 14th opening, but warned/foreshadowed that we would undoubtedly get some level of community spread but that Cayman was ready.

      “If we get to October 14 and there has, prior to that, been a decision to proceed with that phase, that’s when that risk goes up and it is quite likely that within a period of weeks we would have COVID reintroduced into our community and we will have to learn to live with it and manage it,”

      So we need to be living and managing this as the rest of the world is showing us. Regardless of whether we open the boarders or not.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Who does the PACT government want to please by by trying to open the borders in peak winter when even normal flu infections are at peak, and COVID 19 would also be at its peak. Who is losing the most $$$$$ – DART!

  3. Anonymous says:

    How many of the positive adults and children over 12 are vaccinated? Seems like all adults are vaccinated because otherwise that would be the headline news.

    • Anonymous says:

      How many quarantine breakers have been charged. It’s all gone very quiet.
      Perhaps low friends in high places have “taken care“ of the problem…?

  4. Anonymous says:

    2% of the population (if the 71,000 is to be believed!) are locked up! Quarantine is a fancy word for prison. Of these 1400+ folks, none of them are remotely sick. A few sniffles. A cough.

    What are we doing? What are we allowing to happen? Why are we all so scared? Why is nobody doing anything about this nonsense?

    Why do people think covid is coming to get us? It’s really not. The PCR tests can’t differentiate between flu, common cold or this particular virus. This is fact. We also run them at such high thresholds that the vast majority of ‘positives’ are certainly not infectious. And as to being infectious, 2/3rds of us have natural immunity anyhow (T-cells); more again will have acquired immunity (from travel, exposure when it was likely here before in late 2019); and then some of us will have vaccinated protection (if that’s really a thing of course depends on ‘waning’ and also your age/health and a basic understanding of RRR and ARR).

    What in the world are we doing? People have to stop being afraid to live. Simple risk assessment will tell you, along with basic data facts from the past 20 months, that MOST deaths are in those that are older than the average life expectancy AND most of those had multiple existing illnesses.

    The astonishing over reaction to Covid19 and the bizarre willingness of the masses to accept having their lives and freedoms pulled is truly unbelievable.

    Wake up. Its ok to go outside, the dreaded virus isn’t coming for you. That has to be your mindset or you will never move on.

  5. Anonymous says:

    In Cayman it seems that the word ‘selfish’ now means someone with different priorities.

    Even among people who are fully vaccinated, those who want to get back to earning money from tourists or travel without inconvenience say that others who want to keep quarantine to protect the health of the vulnerable in the community are selfish. At the same time vaccinated people who put the health of the community over money say that those who want to drop quarantine to bring in tourist dollars or travel whenever they want without inconvenience are selfish.

    Name calling does not promote consensus. If that is what we are hoping to achieve, we need to find better ways of achieving it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Except its been 20 months since March 2020, and we cant do this forever. We’ve essentially reached out vax threshold for all intents and purposes.

    • Anonymous says:

      You can only draw moral equivalence if you assume there is an acceptable commercial price tag for human lives. That’s a hardwiring problem, not a programming error.

      • Anonymous says:

        In practice, there is. As a society we make that compromise all the time. For infectious diseases, for dangerous pursuits that affect others, for individual risks etc

  6. Anonymous says:

    The number of these family members who are supposed to be quarantining with their positively tested child and are in fact running around up and down is a disgrace.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Quite clearly, trusting every isolated person to be totally honest and responsible with their self-isolation conditions is a major source of community covid-spread. Not everyone is honest or responsible!

    Some members of my extended family are isolated at their home due to the possible exposure of their child at one school. They received the isolation notification by phone call on a Sunday night. That was 9 days ago and to date, NO ONE has come to the residence to physically confirm that family is maintaining their isolation. Thankfully that family is respectful and responsible, and maintaining their self-isolation – but not because there is ANY system in place ensuring it!!

    PACT & Travel Cayman screwed-up when they ditched the electronic monitoring tags!

  8. Anonymous says:

    As a fully vaccinated Caymanian senior with a large family, some of whom rely on tourism, I have not made up my on this debate about dropping quarantine in order to encourage tourists and their money to come back. I am hoping that government will provide a few more facts to move the debate from emotion to decisions based on evidence and science.

    How many of us does government expect to die over the next 6 months if quarantine is dropped. Is it 0 or 10 or 100?

    What will be the additional health care and other costs of re-opening over the same period?

    How much money will government and the private sector take in from the tourists over those next 6 months?

    How much money will be lost and how many lives could be saved if government waits another few months so that we can have access to the new oral anti-viral medications and everyone who needs one can have a booster?

    Hopefully there will be a press conference where government will answer these and other questions.

    • Realistic says:

      Covid will still be around 6 months from now. To think otherwise is not following any of the science. The government can’t give anyone an estimate of the number of people that will get sick or die from Covid or any other illness, accident, etc. To think they can is not realistic.

      • Anonymous says:

        World average is 0.041% death rate

        • Anonymous says:

          World vaccination rate is 48%, in Cayman we are 74% double vaccinated -which would suggest an even lower death rate

      • Anonymous says:

        I shall proffer that the better questions to pose to our leaders are these:
        1. How many deaths over what period of time do you deem to be a tolerable price for relaxing current travel restrictions?
        2. What are the threshold numbers in cases/hospitalisations/deaths that will trigger putting into place restrictions and what are the restrictions at each level?
        The answers need no crystal ball and will give an accurate assessment of the mindset, expectations and plans our leaders have in regard to Covid policy.

      • Anonymous says:

        That pessimistic outlook fully discounts that there are other tools in advanced development that offer an end, in sight: VOC-specific mRNA boosters weren’t robustly tested in early Sept and are re-doing their trials to seek a follow-up FDA EUA by New Year. Those new tools might end this threat quickly, or at least in the first world rollout countries. Delta could be extinguished by end Q1 2022 if these tools are deployed, and I believe they will be, buttressed with supporting science from a larger trial sample group. MRNA vaccines are here to stay, and thank goodness for that.

    • Anonymous says:

      As a fully vaccinated multigenerational Caymanian with no interest in tourism, I say cut the shit, follow the science and ditch tve irrational fear. Open the damn schools and open the damn border

      • Anonymous says:

        We may be related based on your claim but we don’t agree. I say cut the shit, follow the science, cut the indifference and disregard for other Caymanians and residents, keep quarantine and proceed with the sensible policies that were in place up until August. As for the schools, that needs improving which will hopefully arrive with supervised lateral flow testing.

    • Anonymous says:

      good questions generally. but a ‘few more months’ argument has been used before…nearly 2 years ago.
      there are risks in life that we have mitigate and live with.

      • Anonymous says:

        The new oral meds that cut deaths and hospitalizations by 50% are supposed to be approved in November. Those meds plus the boosters are mitigation. To proceed without that mitigation is reckless endangerment.

      • Anonymous says:

        We should recall that Cayman was going to reopen in October, and this PACT regime (the only political group willing to reopen) are deferring that date by a few weeks to the end of November so they can apply known science by receiving and deploying boosters in our elderly fully-vaccinated. We can see the wisdom in that, when breakthrough delta cases in other countries are standing around 30%. So 90% minus 30% is a delta preparedness of just 60% right now. Wouldn’t we want a couple weeks to re-level that score if we could? Think so.

    • Anonymous says:

      Unvaccinated delta modelling can suggest how Cayman might fare. If 70,000 pop with 90% vaccinated, thousands of unvaccinated, as well as falsely confident waning antibodied, will unfortunately take ill and recover. Perhaps with an initial case spike, and many of those folks needing one of our few dozen 02-equipped hospital beds. 40-50 will die, and around 400 will survive with some lifetime health complication they didn’t have before – with those medical costs borne by gov’t. Boosters really help this outlook. Annual Christmas shopping trips to Miami would be allowed, vaccinated kids could come home for the holidays, billionnaire-owned hotels will also be allowed to operate at reduced bookings, and there will still be no cruise ship passengers going to stingray city, turtle prison, dolphinariums, or buying duty free trinkets from Kirkconnell family stores/malls.

      • Anonymous says:

        Hey Carnac how bout telling us the next hot stocks to pick while you have your scientific crystal ball out.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why do people dislike questions or is it that they know and do not like the answers?

    • Anonymous says:

      14 people on average will die with Covid based on the population of cayman.

      Majority will be 80 +

      • Anonymous says:

        Really? you spout that ignorant crap on a day when Bermuda has 92 dead (and counting)?

      • Anonymous says:

        very good..someone who can do math.
        there is no escaping stats. even if 100% of population was vaccinated 7 people on average will die with/becasue of covid….very likely to be elderly and ill already.

    • Anonymous says:

      If the boosters and the new drugs that are supposed to be approved in the US and UK next month can save the lives of 1/2 of those who would otherwise die I say that that waiting those few weeks is worth it. No tourists coming before Christmas anyway with American and the other airlines not taking bookings.

  9. Anonymous says:

    The Bermuda Government just published the latest results from their drop quarantine and let the virus in experiment. 92 dead as of last evening, 37 in hospital and 9 in ICU. Similar population. Slightly lower vaccination rate. Who in their right mind thinks that Cayman should copy Bermuda?

    https://www.gov.bm/articles/coronavirus-update-11-october-2021

    • Anonymous says:

      Give it a rest…Learn the facts.

      Bermuda opened to tourism 12 months ago and had a pre test and test on arrival system. This was long before they had vaccines.

      Turks and Caicos opened 15 months ago and dod great!

      UAE opened and has similar vaccination to us now.

    • Anonymous says:

      The way that you are wording this makes it sound like they recently dropped quarantine and this is the result. That’s not true. Their border has been open for well over a year. Their vaccination rate is lower than Cayman’s and was obviously non-existent when they opened. Before July they did not even require unvaccinated people to quarantine. This caused spread of the delta variant that they are just now starting to get under control.

    • Steve says:

      You’re welcome to take responsibility for your own life and isolate at home. You cannot impose your irresponsibility on everyone else in the world. Do not be selfish.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Boosters now! What are we waiting for?

  11. Anonymous says:

    And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:27

    If we are truly Christians, we know there is nothing we can do to prevent when we go. So why the attitude- we don’t want a single person to die from Covid? Are we so arrogant to think we’re in control?

    • Anonymous says:

      The Lord helps those who help themselves – by getting vaccinated and maintaining border quarantine protocols.

      • Anonymous says:

        You’re a pro-Vaxxer and have this missed the point to push your agenda. I too am vaccinated but don’t shove it down other people faces. The point was, vaccinated or not, we cannot control when we go. So we need to look at the other damages we cause by pretending we can outsmart nature .

        • Anonymous says:

          “we cannot control when we go”

          so yo must be one of those people who just walk across a busy road without even looking if a car is coming.

          of course you have some control of when you go, otherwise why bother with even visiting a doctor ever

        • Anonymous says:

          And you are denying science. Taking the “Christian” way, do you not think God gave these scientists the brains to create the vaccine to save everyone’s lives? The God I know helps those who help themselves and by providing vaccines he has provided a way for humanity to help themselves. If one does not take it and dies it is not “God’s way” it is one’s shortsightedness. You can also argue all the disinformation is Satan’s way to keep us from taking advantage of the opportunity to control and weaken the virus. Just saying there are many ways to look at the situation.

          • Anonymous says:

            God’s way is natural immunity, where people look after their own health through understanding. God will help those, helping themselves.

        • Anonymous says:

          If by “outsmarting nature” you mean: reading how viral transmission works, and then practicing responsible behavior ie. keeping 6 feet distance, washing hands, and protecting others by wearing a mask, then count me in. There are many many frontline ER doctors that have been waist deep in COVID cases every single day since this began, that have successfully navigated those hallways without infection. So, it is possible to be educated, responsible, and have room for some faith and spirituality too. Not all mutually exclusive.

    • Anonymous says:

      At this point deaths from covid are avoidable due to vaccines and natural immunity. God will help those, who are trying to help themselves.

  12. Kwik Maths says:

    This is around 2% of the population in isolation.

    This is madness and unsustainable.

  13. Anonymous says:

    No expert here but you think they would allow the unvaccinated to acquire or build their natural immunity.
    Then everyone on the island would have some level of protection for the reopening of the border.

    • Anonymous says:

      If you think about it, they already are…even the children. Everyone has their right to choose one way or another. However, if we look at our statistics, no one who is unvaccinated or vaccinated are truly ill (awesome news!). Those with symptoms are reporting only mild ones, which is great. If you want to be vaccinated – get it and gain that sense of security for yourself. If not, well thus far our numbers are showing promise and those who are catching Covid are gaining natural immunity. One way or another, it is clear that living with Covid is the new normal and we need to figure out a way to effectively move forward. Just my humble 2 cents.

      • Anonymous says:

        They are sticking with whatever strategy they have been told, as if there is no alternative.
        We can deduce for ourselves, what is happening.
        Let everyone gets some form of protection, or isolate if there do not want to catch the virus, and then open the border.
        It’s getting boring now, as it makes no sense to be closed and nothing changing.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because rather than immunity, a percentage of ding-dongs will also acquire their avoidable deaths. Being thick in the head isn’t ordinarily fatal. Special times.

  14. Anonymous says:

    There must be a better way. My heart goes out to the families that aren’t earning. Gov needs to release a proper plan urgently. This lack of clarity is leading to more anxiety & stress. God bless.

    • Anonymous says:

      The lack of leadership is concerning.

      • Anonymous says:

        Be careful not to confuse historic PPM/UDP wind bagging and back peddling as leadership. PACT should hold a press conference on reopening and the health and safety measures they are putting in place, along with border reopen date. Honest hard work is a welcome change from the past regimes IMO. Just because it’s quiet in your ears, doesn’t mean people aren’t busy and things aren’t happening.

    • Anonymous says:

      I hope someone is feeding back these comments to OUR leaders.

  15. Anonymous says:

    All that time locked down just kept it all at bay. What did you think would happen. Covid would just stay away?? Typical cayman mentality. It’ll be Islam’s wide in no time. Embrace it. Let it run its course. It’s the only way. Then you can open the island.
    Way behind the rest of the world. Cayman and all its beauty, always 3 steps behind.

    • Anonymous says:

      Translation – I young, fit and don’t have any family in Cayman. Let the dying begin so that I can get back to making money.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Three more deaths in Bermuda announced tonight (link below). 60 deaths in 5 weeks. Almost 40 remain in hospital. Will Cayman get its Delta wave in adults?

    https://www.royalgazette.com/health/news/article/20211011/covid-19-three-more-deaths-but-number-of-active-infections-falls/

    • Anonymous says:

      We. Have. 90%. Vaccination. Rate.

      • Anonymous says:

        We have 74% fully vaccinated. Bermuda has 67% fully vaccinated. Populations are very similar. If we drop quarantine the way Bermuda did we should expect a similar outcome including deaths.

        • Anonymous says:

          Bermuda opened last year before there was even a vaccine!

        • Anonymous says:

          Only if you believe PACT’s use of the high end if the population scale is accurate. According to Our World in Data, which is published by a research team from the University of Oxford, we have the fourth highest vaccination rate in the world at 84%.

    • Loki says:

      Yes. It is inevitable. Zero COVID stopped being a credible policy when delta came along. Get jabbed and roll the dice.

    • Anonymous says:

      60 who experienced the reality of the drop quarantine and did not learn to live with Covid campaign in Bermuda. Those 60 died from Covid.

    • Anonymous says:

      It seems that the re-open at all costs campaign that until recently held up Bermuda as the model to follow does not like any information to be made available to the public that shows what a disaster their drop quarantine and live with Covid experiment has been.

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes we will. We are overdue boosters. The vaccine is not as effective as first thought after a few months. We have no field hospital. Government and the tourism industry want to open up. We can learn from the experience of our neighbors or ignore them and have 100 dead within a year, or less. This is madness.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Why slow down the spread in schools Dr Lee? Nobody really sick, nobody in hospital, enviable vaccination rates, lateral flow tests available. Bend the curve was so 2020, time to move on like the rest of the world has done.

  18. Anon says:

    Don’t bother to be vaccinated. Don’t bother to follow all the rules. It makes absolutely no difference.

    This Government still locks you up for 14 days quarantine and treats the vaccinated the same as the non vaccinated

    What message are you sending out
    Utter imbeciles

    • Anonymous says:

      This nonsense of linking vaccination to controlling the spread is everywhere and needs to stop. Lots of personal benefits to a person being vaccinated and society benefits as theoretically if the perosn gets the virus then they are less likely to have severe symptoms if vaccinated ( and therefore the Health Services are protected from being overwhelmed)- but vaccination does not control spread !

  19. Bill says:

    A lock down by any other name…. If they ever open you won’t have to quarantine… just join the rest of the island in isolation. 🤷‍♂️

  20. Anonymous says:

    Given the level of anger with the rules, shouldn’t we just have a public vote on ending quarantine rules? The government say we have a 71,000 population or whatever, so say there are 15,000 kids…. That’s about 56,000. Let everyone vote… if 28,001 or whatever the majority of the island is say no quarantine for vaccinated, then implement it on November 1 and Leon up. That’s fair to me, and it’s clear there would be a huge majority to open,

    • Anonymous says:

      We should have a formal referendum. That way the government will know the will of the electorate.

      • Anonymous says:

        Agreed. I am fairly certain that in a formal referendum dropping quarantine and allowing the virus to spread unchecked would not be favoured by the electorate.

  21. Anonymous says:

    1,415 in quarantine. Wow-wee…..living like it’s 2020.

  22. Anonymous says:

    The PACT government decided to relax the COVID-19 suppression measures so I can only assume that this was expected. I am not saying that the decision by the PACT government was wrong or right. I am just saying that this should have been expected based on the decision that were made by PACT.

  23. Anonymous says:

    I think we have to face that beyond not employing mNu Caymanians and being a low wage industry, mass tourism is unviable in the age of covid. Also 14 days quarantine is the gold standard of community protection along with hefty fines for quarantine breakers. Time to pivot to high end tourism and possible long term residency permits for remote workers. This will help the government maintain its surplus.

    • Anonymous says:

      Absolutely right!

    • Anonymous says:

      15 Cruse ships operated in Alaska this summer.
      Seems posible.

      • Anonymous says:

        You forgot to mention the part where Covid overwhelmed their health care system by the end of the cruise season.

        week recently –

        TCI has approximately 1/2 or population and has been having approximately 1 death per week in recent weeks.

        https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/07/alaska-hospitals-ration-care-covid-19

        • Anonymous says:

          I’m not suggesting we start allowing cruise ships to enter but you can’t possibly be suggesting that Alaska’s overwhelmed healthcare system is the result of cruise tourism.

          It’s far more likely that it is the result of their government’s refusal to institute mask mandates and social distancing laws even in the face of a spike in covid cases. The breakthrough cases that they had on the cruise ships were inconsequential given the spread that was already there.

          It seems like you are just trying to scare people by implying that.

    • Anonymous says:

      LOL.

      The long term workers are not coming to a place that is like Alcatraz.
      No one wants to be locked in isolation for 14 or 7 days. The rest of the world has worked that out so why cant Cayman.

      • Anonymous says:

        Or to have their 5 year old kids wear masks 8 hours a day, have their family force quarantined for 15 days even if their child tests negative, and be unable to have the grandparents see the kids.

    • Anonymous says:

      Even high end tourists and long term residents are not going to waste the time or money to come to Cayman and quarantine. They are vaccinated and there are no restrictions in the places that they are coming from other than maybe where a mask inside.

      In particular long term residents aren’t going to move here knowing every time they need to leave or have family visit, they’ll have to quarantine for 14 days. Why bother when most countries have opened up without that.

      • Anonymous says:

        It’s pretty obvious with the large number of breakthrough cases that the vaccine doesn’t work well after a month or two. Plenty of people would like to live in a covid free environment and will pay for a permit to do it as they work remotely. They can travel just have to quarantine for 14 days when they come back. They can test their vaccinations in their destinations

  24. Anonymous says:

    This is getting out of hand. No more quarantine.

  25. Annie says:

    Glad the two infants are doing well. I cannot imagine the stress those parents felt. Please everyone, get vaccinated, it really matters. And keeps us all safer than the alternative.

    • Loki says:

      Yes, the stress of knowing the infection mortality rate for children is now around 1 in 1 million must have been awful. The kid was probably more likely to die on the drive back from hospital.

  26. Anonymous says:

    Completely unnecessary. A violation rights.

    • Anonymous says:

      You don’t have the right to wander the streets possibly giving the virus to someone who then dies.
      Your conditional ‘right’ does not usurp other people’s right to live…
      What price are we putting on a life anyway ??

  27. Anon says:

    Considering the classes that they reported were isolating, that number is is probably only students. No one asks how many people are in the household and they only test the child. No one asks who is quarantining with the child.

  28. Anonymous says:

    This is ridiculous!
    These children are posable contacts and their pedants are contacts of contacts.
    For what reason are we isolating contacts of posable contacts?

    Does the legislation really allow for us to lock people up this way….IF so time to hit the streets and man up people.

  29. Anonymous says:

    Cayman parents please watch Dr. Watkin on below link at approx 4hrs 47 mins

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=paFWsFZ6O_s&feature=youtu.be

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, her presentation is excellent. Hope the government has watched it. They might learn something.

  30. Anonymous says:

    Vaccination reduces the risk of dying or being hospitalised with Covid-19 by 90%, a French study of 22 million people over the age of 50 has found.
    GET VACCINATED!

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