Active COVID-19 cases climb to 235
(CNS): There were 24 new positive COVID-19 test results on Wednesday, bringing the number of active cases of the virus to a new high of 235. From 926 tests carried out over the last day, nine positive cases were in travellers exiting quarantine and fifteen were new community case, including three children. There are now 148 people in Cayman with symptoms of COVID-19 and two in the hospital. One of them, who is not vaccinated is in the ICU but not on a ventilator. The Public Health Department is believed to be pushed to the limit, testing close to a thousand people a day, as the reality of managing community spread starts to bite.
Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee is urging the unvaccinated to get their shots as soon as possible and invited anyone over 50 years old who had their second shot more than six months ago to get a booster.
Over the last day an additional 86 people came forward to be vaccinated for the first time, which means almost 56,000 people have now had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 112 people got their second shot. 7% of those aged 50 and over have now had a booster.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
Apparently the wealthiest of the wealthy have been choosing Cayman over the past couple years because of how safe the Covid situation was and this has propelled the local real estate sales and development markets.
After spending millions to move here – what will our Gov say to these people now that cases are on the rise and public health is already feeling the pressure?
“Jonathan Sparrow of Sotheby’s told Mansion Global magazine that some of the lures of Cayman for global real estate buyers are the low rate of COVID-19, safety and spaciousness of properties.”
https://cayman.loopnews.com/content/bodden-town-mansion-sells-264-million
Open up in the middle of a surge 14 Days quarantine and testing prior to flight is appropriate safety measures anything less would be just plain Stupidity at this point. How many times are we going to follow rinky dink advice from those who do not give a flying F@#&% about Cayman our it’s people. Loss $600,000 in stamp duty fees yet giving billions $$$$$$$$$ in Duty waivers to unscrupulous and crooked realestate developers ! Please spare us the Bullshit eh !
The numbers will rise a lot higher in the coming weeks and months. There’s no escaping that fact, but those who are inoculated will feel less of its impact.
We need to get used to living with this virus, its not going away any time soon. Just use a common sense approach, such as masks, distancing and sanitising.
Correction: those under 40 will feel less of its impact.
Ain’t that news, not.
I don’t mind living with the virus. What I don’t like is that some of us, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, are going to die with the virus shortly after the government cuts the ribbon and officially welcomes Covid to Cayman.
Covid is already here!
Why do we have to live with the virus? We had a bubble. We have allowed foreign dominated commercial interests to burst it. We are choosing it. We should not.
But it was locals breaking quarantine that spread it?
Evidence? The reduction of the quarantine period to just 5 days when the incubation period is 14 days is much more probable as it is well known that infected but not yet PCR positive individuals would be released into the community when testing is limited to 5 days post arrival.
There is no evidence for this. They never connected the initial positives to a traveller. It is just as likely that it was a breach which of course people would not have admitted to.
If you describe the region as “local” and illicit night landings to deliver drugs widely consumed amongst the local and North American populations of the Cayman Islands, as breaking quarantine, you may have a point.
It’s not economically feasible to stay closed forever.
CIG should also be utilizing a vaccine passport system. Many countries have turned to them to slow the increase of covid cases and prevent further lockdowns. We should be putting that in place ahead of reopening.
Oh, there is no place like Hypochondria. Can’t wait to get back home from my exhausting vacation in Florida and take a much needed, Government allocated, break to recover from my activities.
Have to admit, the most stressful part of the whole vacation was finding a place to do a PCR test which could be returned in 48 hours to present when traveling, as the majority in Florida are no longer drinking the CNN coolaid and self administered antigen self test are available everywhere.
You sound exactly like the sort of person who doesn’t take this seriously, acts irresponsibly while overseas, catches covid, then breaches quarantine when back in Cayman, spreading your germs everywhere.
Welcome home idiot. Fingers crossed you don’t kill anyone.
Close your Facebook account immediately.
What is this quarantine you speak of?
Why are nine positives exiting quarantine – 4th line of the article? Shouldn’t their quarantine be extended until they are negative?
they have not exited. They were detected as positive on their test to exit. With a positive result – they will remain in quarantine.
No, what they meant is that they were going to exit quarantine (i.e.. probably at the end of their 7 days) but they were found positive, in which case I am sure they had to quarantine again until they show negative. Just as well they were caught in time before mixing with the community.
This would have been their exit tests but as they were positive they won’t have been released….
This is all sounding like Reptart talk in the USA.
Over the past 4 or 5 weeks, there have been over 200 more infection in the community, children, some travelers.
I have wondered how the community infections started, lack of home monitoring or bad practice testing.
And now, the gov is thinking about opening the country, influenced by SITA, business pressure,and greed.
UK is showing again, an uptick in cases, Europe too, new variant. The USA says its cases are going down, but it really isn’t.
So, the gov is playing Covid roulette, playing the reward/ cost game. Where is the threshold of what you are going to accept for profit?
Seems to me, that they are being very careless with Caymanian lives.
Wonder how many CI$ has been passed around under the table? We will never know, but seems plausible, imo.
Dr. Lee has been the cautious voice of reason for a few years, influencing gov with science and not allowing it to shove their heads in the sand.
He is taking a leave for family reasons ….. or was he asked to leave? Remember, after this gov gained power they had a nurse, a nurse, give the briefings, not Dr. Lee.
Now, that the shit has hit the fan, he has been recalled to try and placated the masses.
ok,thats my rant.
CAyman Kind, my ass!
One of the more well reasoned “nearly a rant” posts of recent weeks. Thank you. BTW – its not a rant if you are absolutely right.
Covid numbers increase everywhere and every time sensible public health measures are abandoned by politicians. Politicians who ignore public health basics are the best allies Sars-CoV-2 could hope for.
CNN – “Singapore will extend its Covid-19 restrictions for another month after the city-state reported 18 new deaths from the disease on Wednesday, its highest number of the pandemic.
In a news release Thursday, Singapore’s Ministry of Health said current measures would be extended to November 21, to help contain case numbers, which rose by more than 3,800 on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, given the continuing pressures on our healthcare system, more time is needed for the situation to stabilise,” the ministry said in its statement, adding hospitals were braced for “a sustained, heavy patient load.”
L”awrence Wong, co-chair of Singapore’s Covid-19 taskforce, said Wednesday medical staff were “stretched and fatigued.”
“At the current situation, we face considerable risk of the healthcare system being overwhelmed,” he added.
Singapore had previously announced in June it would be abandoning its zero-Covid strategy in favor of a new plan to live with the virus. The shift was possible thanks to the country’s high vaccination rates, which are among the best in the world.
As of October 19, 84% of Singapore’s population had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and 85% had received at least one dose, according to the Ministry of Health.”
Yet we are happy to send census people knocking on doors while covid spreads
Wow! It sounds like you’re hoping for deaths. That is really sad.
Not even the tip of the iceberg. Plenty of us have had it in the past few weeks, just that we not all fool enough to present for voluntary testing and get put under illegal house arrest for a month.
That is a very valid point. I am certain that this is happening all over. There is little support in quarantine. Groceries at already high prices cost more to be delivered. Some people lose salary while in quarantine. Quarantine increases expenses with no income. If you are vaccinated with non vaccinated kids you are shut in for 14 days. Easy to say get tested but many do not.
One of the other local online new sources is reporting today that Air Canada is resuming flights from Toronto in December even with the current quarantine rules. Kind of adds to the view that our quarantine rules are not the tourism deterrent that the open at any cost cabal tries to project.
They are talking about flying once per week. This will be a huge help to residents and Caymanian students who would like to travel to and from Canada over the Christmas period. It is however nowhere near the usual several flights a week during this time of year and I highly doubt many tourists will be clamouring to buy tickets. Whether you agree with continuing quarantine or not, as long as it’s in place for vaccinated people we are not “open” in any kind of meaningful way.
Are Caymanians allowed? Borders were certainly closed to Caymanians recently. Has that changed?
Their border is open to tourists vaccinated people do not need to quarantine at all.
Actually the articles says that they are starting with 1 flight per week and then increasing to 3 flights per week by early January.
Air Canada has been selling ghost flights for months. If a couple flights actually go through, it just shows that there are enough Canadians here that either want to travel to Canada for Christmas or have family that will come visit because they haven’t seen each other in two years.
Do you honestly think there is enough Canadian tourists willing to quarantine for ten days? Why on earth would they come here when they could go somewhere else and start their holiday immediately? And please don’t say it’s because we are covid-free because we are not and the rest of the world is learning to live with covid anyway.
There is a large number of long-term tourists from Canada who come every year. Most do not want to fly through the states with the risks that poses. With WestJet not flying at the moment, Air Canada flights will fill very very quickly.
There is not even enough to fill one plane. Sorry.
We can and always should have maintained quarantine. Thousands are willing to come.
Now, because of a misguided emphasis on “living” with Covid, tens of people are going to die, most unnecessarily.
We will regret it. It is madness.
Our forefathers gave their lives so others could live free. Some of us will give our lives so others can sunbathe without the indignity of quarantine.
Excellent post. Thank you.
Excellent comment, thank you. I feel the same way. Why should I jeopardise my long term health so a few low quality tour operators can cram people back onto cattle boats to see the stingrays for a mediocre experience.
No one will go with a quarantine in place!
Funny. Thousands are trying to come right now, and are more than happy to quarantine – especially if it permits them to enjoy life in a Covid-free community. Allowing Covid to take hold again is a mistake. It will cost lives, and in fact damage our tourism industry. CDC Red List, here we come!
Thousands??? There are people with holiday homes here that are giving up on the border reopening and looking to sell. And those are people that have a place to quarantine but don’t want the hassle anymore. There are not thousands of people willing to come here and sit in a hotel room for ten days when they can just go to the beach somewhere else.
Being covid-free is not the draw you think it is now that we have vaccines. People are vaccinated and coming from places where everything is open and the only restriction they have is maybe wearing a mask, which they are used to anyway. Very very few people would choose Cayman if there is the quarantine – that is just the reality.
No one cares about wearing a mask to a destination. Most are used to wearing masks at their jobs or on public transportation/public buildings. No one wants to quarantine. You need to get off that rock. We don’t want or need to live in a bubble. We haven’t thru the whole pandemic and certainly don’t want to on a vacation.
As for thousands trying to get there- I think most have moved on as there were too many postponements in the opening date. The only ones that are trying to get there are those with family or close friends on island. As for a beach holiday, other locations have been open, have offered special welcome back rates, easy traveling covid protocols and want the tourists.
Cayman is not covid free and has never been. No one, but Cayman believed that covid free title especially when the covid counter kept increasing.
If we have 235 active cases now and an additional 100 or so in the past 4 weeks who are listed as ‘recovered’, we must be very close to getting on the CDC’s ‘red list’ of countries the US recommends people not travel to.
If our population is 71,000 and the CDC criterion for putting countries on the red list is 500 cases/100,000 over a 30 day rolling period, that means that we will get red listed when our total reaches something like 355. If our population is is only 65,000 the way the open the borders crowd claims we must be there already. Maybe that is why government is using 71,000?
Interesting – if we get on the CDC red list then that will deter people who follow science and reason from coming to Cayman, leaving a visitor pool of anti-vaxxers, idiots, and similar minded tourists. Should make Covid spread go much faster.
Might significantly increase the percentage traveling on fake vaccine certificates as well.
There is an interesting article on Singapore and its living with Covid progess here –
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/cdc-very-high-risk-travel-destinations-october-18/index.html
But what is happening in Bermuda?
Here is a link to how the CDC determines levels
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/how-level-is-determined.html
I’m vaccinated and boostered in the US and what is stopping me from coming is quarantine and no commercial flights. Your airline doesn’t interchange with anyone and that makes getting there and back a gigantic pain. Then there is the long quarantine and all the rigamarole. The red list makes absolutely no difference.
Irrelevant. I can come now, it’s just too much hassle.
Give it a rest. You can have covid, too.
There are good people here and those are the ones who understand that they need to care for the animals as well.
They killed this rooster flock and it has been crowing, hollering, crying since last Friday none stop.
I say God is hearing the cries of the most most vulnerable amongst us, the animals.
Let the culling continue.
Eh?
For whom the cock crows
Cases……..not hospitalized…. Not deaths….. Cases! Only 2 in hospital…. Most likely very young, elderly or a diabetic.
Deaths are coming dont worry. We are not immune to this virus. We have become complacent and will suffer dearly because of it.
Wow! It sounds like you’re hoping for deaths. That is really sad.
The reality is that (following Bermuda’s example) one person who currently has Covid will likely die from it in the next 3 weeks or so. Thereafter (at current rates of infection) another will die weekly the next week, and every few days thereafter. If you do not believe me, ask the Chief Medical Officer what their expectations are. If they do not answer, FOI them. They have run the numbers. I sincerely hope I am wrong but if it kills 0.5% of those it infects, we appear on track to lose someone about every 5 days by Christmas. Then there is the question of long Covid amongst a number of survivors. Hope the tourists are worth it!
Great post. Thank you.
The reality is that no one is very sick and most didn’t even know they had it. Get your shots and get on with life.
Not with the high vaccination rate. It is the unvaccinated that will need to follow Covid protocols carefully.
Oh that’s OK then. The elderly and those with diabetes can die, but they were going to die one day anyway so they don’t matter or don’t count. Shame on you.
One was already in hospital for a different illness. The other is unvaccinated.
They still don’t deserve to suffer with covid, even if elderly or unvaccinated for whatever reason. It doesn’t justify their illness or death.
Ridiculous.
No. The elderly and diabetics need to follow Covid protocols more carefully than most. So do those that are unvaccinated.
899 Fully Recovered.
You don’t know that. How many of the 899 have lingering symptons, long covid, or ongoing heart/lung/neurological damage from their infections?
My sister in the UK has been too ill to work for more than a year now with long covid, and she wasn’t even very ill when she caught it. Long covid is to be taken very seriously so even if a person doesn’t die, they can be disabled for life as a result of their infection.
More like thousands as most are not getting tested for obvious reasons.
The most beautiful thing about this COVID-19 situation is that we can finally identify the subversive and dishonest elements in our society.
We have lived alongside them, even befriended them, but now their true colours are manifest.
I am not walking around in misery, I am empowered by truth.
Truth.
The wave is coming and the undertow is deadly
Stop stressing. It’s bad for your health and bad if you ever do get covid.
In addition, 1,352 people have had a third, or booster, dose, which represents 7% of those over 50. So says Dr. Lee. Question. How does government know we have 19,314 people over 50? The census isn’t complete. Governments estimated population doesn’t match ESO. Yet Dr. Lee knows our population by age?
DO NOT RELY ON THE ESO POPULATION STATISTICS!
They do not count anyone on a temporary work permit, a pcw, or an appeal. Nor do they count the dependents of such persons, or the multiple foreign property owners and their families “camping out” in Cayman.
This issue has been known for years, and government needs to confront it. It makes a mockery of public health and many other considerations.
At this point it shouldn’t even matter how many people have been vaccinated because it’s readily available and if they chose to chance it let the cards fall where they may.
Yes those children and people with medical conditions that prevent vaccination will get what they deserve – I hear ya.
If government agreed with you they would have issued a mandate for Caymanians and permanent residents. By electing not to do so, they are saying that the risk to people who are ineligible to vaccinate is outweighed by the fallout from such a mandate. Sucks to know government actually isn’t in their corner, right?
As a person who has children I protect them. They were masks and they sanitize her hands. And I would suggest you do the same with your immune compromised family. So yes let the lake cards fall where they may for the majority of people who can get the vaccine but refuse it.
Also your children will be fine but you should try to feed them less fried food and processed food… ya know? A more healthier diet.
Does anyone else long to have it all back how it was not so long ago. All incoming travellers were expected to quarantine and be monitored for 15 days, and were OK with that. They knew the rules. And the rest of us were able to go about with smiles on our faces knowing we were safe, covid was not in the community. No one was in hospital, none of us were sick or experiencing covid symptoms, life was perfect. Now its horrible. And why did we give it all up? So hotels could make more money at the expense of our health, happiness and freedom. Money over health is never a good enough reason.
Amen!
Quarantine rules were always going to be a temporary measure. We can’t live isolated from the rest of the world forever.
People need to run their businesses, earn money to live, etc. Money doesn’t just grow on trees.
Sure, people have Covid, but no-one seriously ill, thanks to the fact that we have a very effective vaccine.
What exactly is “horrible” about the current situation? Try and look on the bright side, instead of living unnecessarily in fear.
We aren’t even open yet, and a quarter of all the cases assessed in last 2 years are happening right now. Those that aren’t concerned enough to apply simple logic-based precautions, need better data sources, or stat skills. Even the recommended 3rd boosters are merely our best interim counter-measure against Delta. In the last couple months, India and G20 have seen over-confident waning-vaccinated sharing space with unvaccinated in their wards. This is not what fatigued want to read or hear, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Things are not normal anywhere, and least of all in the international travel sector.
I guess you are still working full-time then.
Covid was in the community. Don’t be foolish. Think all the summer colds.
In Bermuda, active cases are rapidly falling and their third wave is ending (see link at the bottom of my post for charts). So that is good news. They did pay a dear price the last 7 weeks though with about 65 deaths.
Separately, Bermuda reported the below today to provide some context to vaccines:
“As of January 11 until October 16, Ms Wilson said 298 people had been admitted to hospital with Covid-19. Of that number, 265 were unvaccinated and 33 or 11 per cent were fully vaccinated.
Of the 83 deaths of people in hospital, 70 were unvaccinated and 13 were vaccinated, she said.”
https://www.royalgazette.com/health/news/article/20211019/covid-19-active-cases-fall-to-lowest-rate-since-august/
Yes. 16% of those dying in Bermuda were fully vaccinated. They were elderly but we have elderly and people with underlying conditions here to.
According to their chief medical officer, they were already teetering on the edge because they were very ill and had organ failure.
We need to be looking at how we can protect those people as we adapt to covid.
Elderly people die. Especially those with multiple ailments. This is a problem with data reporting: death WITH Covid is not the same as death BY Covid. You cannot vaccinate against death. That said – yes – agreed, people working with and living with vulnerable people will need to consider extra precautions to try and minimise exposing these people to Covid. That will include mask wearing and vaccinations.
Again vaccination does not mitigate death. But it’s a better protectorate for those over a certain age which are more vulnerable.
The vast majority of deaths in Bermuda, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, happened AFTER Bermuda stopped quarantining infected individuals arriving from overseas, particularly from the US.
This doesn’t make sense. They always required and still require covid positive people to quarantine.
Enough about Bermuda!
Not really. It is the best predictor of what is going to happen in Cayman if we follow their nonsensical policies.