COVID-19 management plan still abstract
(CNS): Reopening the borders and living with an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases means the Cayman Islands government must focus on reducing the spread and lowering the pressure on public and other health service providers while ensuring that isolation requirements don’t keep too many families locked down at home for too long.
It will mean supporting unpaid workers and micro business owners as well as dealing with visitors who become positive towards the end of their stay and will need somewhere to quarantine. But the plan to manage the issue that was revealed Friday was conceptual rather than practical and the mechanics of how Cayman will achieve the stated aim of being the most successful reopening of any country to date are not yet known.
While the plan outlines what government wants to do and the type of issues it will need to address, it does not say how this will be accomplished. At Friday’s press briefing, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson said the COVID-19 Critical Preparedness, Readiness and Response Plan would instill public confidence in government’s ability to keep the country safe.
“The purpose of the plan is to establish what readiness looks like,” he said, adding that the civil service was asked to demonstrate that it is ready to transition to receiving guests with no mandatory quarantine without overwhelming public services, stressing the health service or undermining the domestic economy.
As he read out the plan, Manderson described the concepts of how officials would tick the boxes of preparedness and assess what each agency would need to achieve, such as keeping teachers in the classroom and transport services safe as well as raising public awareness across the country.
“We are engaging with tourism stakeholders,” he said, noting the need to tackle the problem of COVID-19 positive guests and what would happen to them, especially those staying in Airbnb accommodation or private condos.
Premier Wayne Panton said the reopening will be well planned with a strong, sensible, pragmatic and safe approach. “But with reopening comes the increased risk of community transmissions, which is already growing rapidly, and as a result more people will get more seriously ill and end up in hospital.
“COVID-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future but we know there is no better time than now to continue with our reopening plan,” Panton said. “Our guiding principles will remain the same: safeguarding the health of our community, protecting our health services, and being guided by the best data and science.”
Panton said that the finalisation of the details required for the operations and logistics of implementing the reopening plan was underway. He said that a dedicated team of well qualified and highly experienced individuals was “working day in and day out” on the plan, as he urged people to come together and embrace the reopening of the country, despite concerns that the key issues are a long way from being addressed.
“This is going to require corporate responsibility, personal responsibility and a sense of collective responsibility. We are moving forward with a safe and sustained reopening that protects our healthcare and education systems,” Panton told the country.
The consortium of business representatives, led by the Dart Group, that had been agitating for the borders to reopen by 22 November welcomed the announcement. Randy Merren, the owner of Hurley’s and a spokesperson for the group, said they supported the government’s collaborative approach with the private sector in developing a plan, though he also appeared unaware of the details, saying there was much work to be done.
Paul Pearson, of Davenport Development, said the group appreciated the enormous efforts, but “there is more to do in the coming weeks to help many in the community prepare”. He said the #Ready2Reopen campaign will help share information about getting ready, “but we fully recognise that being ‘ready’ to reopen will look and feel different to everyone”.
The opposition said that they had been invited by government to take part in a presentation about the reopening plan, which was welcomed by Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart. He said the public has a right to see every component of the plan and for government to prove that the country is ready to reopen.
“But it is not lost on me, or the public, that the country’s Critical Preparedness, Readiness and Response Plan is still very much a work in progress,” he said, pointing out that there are just four weeks to go until vaccinated guests will no longer need to quarantine on arrival.
While government’s figures do not detail the number of vaccinated travellers who test positive at the end of quarantine, officials have confirmed that there have been many cases where travellers who are vaccinated are still required to isolate after a positive exit test.
See the DG’s plan in the CNS Library and the full press conference below:
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Category: Politics
Manderson sez: “The purpose of the plan is to establish what readiness looks like”.
I thought the purpose of the plan is to be ready and lay out in detail the steps needed to get prepared in advance of the relaxation of entryu requirements. Showing us what readiness looks like is akin to planning to plan, which government and PACT seem to have down to a fine science. At least Manderson was honest and careful in his choice of words and has given us a veiled but powerful hint that the PACT Clown Car is on the move with a vague idea that they would like to arrive at a great destination but with no clue how to get there. Your hint is well taken Franz. Thanks!
Gone from Abstract to Surrealistic.
If wotkers on permit are not being paid then the permit should be cancelled. Their employers are responsible for them. The P/R recipients who can’t afford their quarantine should have it revoked. Our laws state employers are responsible fof employees and P/R is supposed to be for those who can support themselves. Our Govt needs to stop making them believe we can pay for everyone and his donkey.
Mr Premier stated 5-6 weeks ago that Cayman wasn’t ready, and then yesterday’s briefing !? – it’s pretty clear Cayman certainly wasn’t ready with no real plan in place back then and yesterday’s briefing a demonstration of where Govt should have been at their announcement prior to opening the borders on the 14th; and nothing appears to have progressed since. Mr Premier’s PACT seems to have found synchronisation in two-stepping with the timely legendary Govt departments submitting their Financial reports. I’m all for reopening but this charade is something else
What we have here is a failure to educate. A large segment of Caymans society can’t seem to find it within themselves to follow the rules. How many innocent Expats will now suffer? Just thought I would put in my own ignorant and foolish rant to go with all the others.
Such a bungle of I don’t know what, – they can’t even pretend well enough to give the idea of they know what they’re doing. 🤦🏻♀️
I wish to commend CNS on the exceedingly generous characterization of the ‘plan’ as ‘abstract’.
Sums up everything about this island really that developers, realtors and a few others get together and tell the CIG to reopen and they do.
Thank God they did! And were successful!
Please dont plan when it happens as done in school casesituation.
Please organise workshop with all stake holders of border opening.
Raise all possible scenarios.
Answer all questions on table identifying each dept or agency responsibilty.
Easy to say we will do it. We means nobody. We have to identify agency and individual post holders with specific resp and resources.
Also not to make too much beurocracy. If vaxed person had already pre boarding negative test ,dont test on arrival as it will create administrative headaches of quarantine if one of the visiting family children tests positive. Once inside ,test only if they have symptoms. Not to dig a mountain to find a rat.
Ofcourse visitors may need preboarding negative test when leaving as required by the returning country.who will pay for isolation of case or trt of case and quarantine of family as they may say no money.
People may abuse system civil servants may say child having fever. Test takes time. So quarantine.Will they get covid sick leave or use general sick leave. Better to apply general sick and extended sick leave system.
All issues should have been listed and ready as we had more than a yr to prepare
but people r saying we have only 25 days to plan burning midnight oil, working day and night etc. For many months except for public health police ,many civil servants enjoyed paid holiday by staying home.
Let us prepare properly using experience of other nations.we r lucky in that context.
There is no need to complicate things. Got symptoms, get tested, if positive and in a high risk group-start treatment ASAP while all your contact start prophylactics.
Extremely complicated protocols that are being proposed will use resources, cost money, divert visitors away, increase panic among residents, but would do nearly nothing to reduce MORTALITY.
Mortality can be only controlled by early treatments. Everything else looks good, lots of commotion, appearance of activities, but accomplishes nothing in terms of reduction of morTality. The #1 goal must be EARLY TREATMENTS.
I don’t even the government. There is no easy or obvious path forward. Reopening is a very polarising issue and we need look no further than the CNS comments section to see this.
That said, it’s clear to everyone that there will be a sharp increase in cases once we open. I understand the government is still trying to figure out the best policies in terms of managing the increased spread, but I think they will find that despite the current polarisation, the public will unite against them if we are locked down again because it turns out they haven’t spent the money on adequate oxygen supplies, treatments and othrr resource. Make no mistake, there will be people in the hospital. And if they are going to shut, restaurants, impose curfews and lock people up again, it better be as a last resort and not a knee-jerk reaction one month into this.
81 positive cases. Good job on the 5 day quaratine
But hey, at least we got a good stock of ganja.
At least we are not stuck at home watching netflix or working at our kitchen table.
A comedy that is destined to be a horror by Christmas
So many ungrateful comments. The Government and the Civil Service has kept us safe since March 2020.
Why the doubt now. Bunch of hypocrisy.
I have never seen more Borders reopening specialist in my life.
Why don’t you all run for office or join the civil service if you know so much.
Wait you are not brave enough to do so. You would rather stand back, complain and offer unwarranted criticism.
Get a life.
Unlike some, from experience I know that the civil service working directly on the Covid front line has been working extremely hard and is doing an excellent job.
The same cannot be said for the political leadership in recent days. The government made sensible decisions and followed the science up to August 2021. Then they were pressured into ignoring common sense, science and public health in order to bow down to the cabal instead. Ridiculous decisions followed and now we have community spread.
I think the hotels/condos who are raising hell about reopening should be required to hold open a percentage of their accommodations free of charge for their guests that get sick while they are here to quarantine in until they can leave. Why should the government be saddled with this expense.
Silly you. As if the wealthy and business cabal actually care about us
Why would they care about those who are openly their enemy? Not like you would ever be able to afford a night in a hotel that CIG wasn’t paying for.
Wy is everyone blaming hotel/condo owners? Every expat and CAymanian – non big business people or condo rental people – I know has been desperate for this for a year. We got vaccinated in March – time to catch up with the rest of the world. We should have done this a year ago like every other country and not delayed the inevitable. I guarantee 75% of the island at least support reopening on Nov 20. Some of you people think COVID will go away in the next few years and this will pass. Deluded.
I guarantee that 75% of the electorate is not on board with the 20 November opening the way things are now.
I wonder how diligent the borders agents will be about forged vaccine passports?
Extremely good forgeries are easily sourced. Now there are even fake supporting interactive QR codes. Our border agents have an extremely difficult task.
I’m all for reopening but I have zero faith that these guys know what they’re doing. It’s been incredibly haphazard so far.
Please let international folks know how and where their vaccination should be uploaded into what portal as we are already making flight arrangements. We can’t wait until last minute to book plans. Also, we will need a PCR test to fly back home after our holiday. Where will we be getting that?
Sorry. None of that information will be made available until some time after 26 December. It is in the plan.
covid is now only a pandemic for the unvaxxed….isolate them and restrict their social interactions…for their own safety and to protect our health system.
Are you the baddies?
You owe a visit to latest UK health statistics. You might be surprised.
Can’t wait to see Cayman leaders running as chickens with their heads off. Cayman stayed in a bubble too long while the rest of the world was learning to live with covid, trying new treatments, new medicine, acquiring herd immunity through infections.
Instead of gradual increase in positive cases you’re going to have a flood of infected people. Most will be fine, but taking into account mental state of Caymanians, panic will follow.
Cayman is not ready, it doesn’t know what it is doing. In fact, It will never be ready. And in the end it will bankrupt itself.
You mean they didn’t follow the business cabal’s directive?
Details would sure be helpful. Just spent 45mins on hold to get through to Cayman Airways where I was told they don’t know when or if the previously sold flights that had been cancelled when CAL reduced their schedule might be restored.
It was a funny conversation as the agent insisted they were not running “repatriation” flights, but in the same breath said they could only offer the flights gov’t approved. It might be confusion on the agent’s part but she was indicating the CAL needed to wait on CIG before they could update their flight schedule.
The government is creating the best reopening plan in the world. Shut up and wait for it.
If you don’t believe it think about which country has gotten this far with not one local death and was covid free for 18 mths.
How much for the Brooklyn Bridge?
Shutting the border was the easy part. It has been amateur hour every since.
There are other places that have done the same thing.
If you think we are getting the best reopening plan in the world… well I can’t really say much to that.
And where is their economy compared to the rest of the world? If you don’t need a functional economy to survive(Civil service) then your good. If you don’t have a job with CIG then how will you continue to live? I know you don’t care and never will but we do. Afraid for your life with Covid? Please hide from the rest of the world and let us get on with our own lives. We will miss you a little.
This bunch couldn’t organise a one-car funeral!
Mr Manderson uttered many platitudes in his “plan” without a single example of modus operandi. Much to do but nothing on how to do it.
Change your expectations of him and you will be less disappointed.
The real shame is that he has the brains to be better, but he was assimilated into the Borg-like civil service and I guess resistance was futile.
2:30 but that was his intention.
Did we really want a 3 hr presentation on the plan at a press conference zzzzzzzzz
Most importantly, what does this all mean for Pirates Week and Batabano? Can we get nekked and gyrate through the streets or not?
as long as you wear a mask…
Who’s getting naked at Pirates Week?
We all will. It will be glorious after the debacle in Las Vegas
Me!
Exactly!
I wish people would stop lumping Pirates Week in with the carnivals. PW is a completely different kind of festival and alcohol is not encouraged during the parade where children are spectators.
Please don’t lump PW in as the same when it caters to a very different crowd and mindset. Thanks.
You’ve never been to a Pirate’s Week street dance then.
If you look around you can find videos to see what you’ve been missing. It is very much not for children.
Why are children going to the street dances? Those are adult events held AT NIGHT. Parents should know where their children are! SMH. For the record I was talking about the daytime events as compared to eth daytime Carnival events, nighttime events are for ADULTS ONLY! There are very many events for children, Children Fun Day in Savannah, the Fireworks shows, Cardboard Boat Race which includes school teams, the School Floats, Heritage Days, the Pooch Parade and a special TEENS ONLY event that is chaperoned by the National Drug Council staff and security guards and cordoned off from the adult night time events. If people are allowing their children to go to events that are for ADULTS then that’s on them but Pirates Week caters to kids and adults separately. Always has!
PW has several events that cater to kids and Teens… the street dance is an ADULT event, you wouldn’t allow a child to go to a nightclub…why would anyone allow them to go to a street dance? I am talking about the daytime and child-friendly events. Have you ever volunteered for PW? if not, then you wouldn’t know about all the events that cater to children…THE STREET DANCES AND NIGHTTIME EVENTS AFTER THE FIREWORKS ARE FOR ADULTS! BUT the Carnivals happen during the daytime where children can see them.
What the hell are you talking about? PW in the past had a lot more drinking, dancing etc than Batabano ever did. I wish people would engage their brains before writing nonsense.
Read the above and learn…and maybe get involved in the event to make it better if you think PW is so bad.
Funny how you assumed I haven’t assisted or offered assistance in the past, which I have for numerous years. PW has been a disaster for years; no central theme for the parade, inconsistent music between floats (some float have music others don’t), no PA system to hear the Pirates landing and discussion with the Governor, same route every year with no proposed amendments. The list goes on.
When member of the public offer input to the PW committee it falls on death ears!!! Hence why Batabano has been the preferred event for years now.
All my wenches
^^ THIS!!!
YES! The walking dryhump is surely the most important thing we’ve been deprived of! I only hope this year the elderly women don’t spray us with hoses.
DG: Who made the decisions that have resulted in the uncontrolled community spread that we are experiencing and what decisions do you think moved the community from being largely protected to the situation that we find ourselves in today?
The idiot persons who visited those in quarantine and then took the virus to their homes, friends, colleagues, etc.
That is who made the decision.
Dominoes is important you know.
It was clear (or should have been clear) to the government that the at-home quarantine would not work. The decision to allow at-home quarantine was a decision to allow the virus to get into the community.
I’m vaxxed so I don’t really worry. On the other hand I never really worried about it. I worry more about the panic freaks that have us living your shortsighted and gutless fever dream.
1:54. Sounds like it was you?
Let us not forget the people who have mild symptoms and decide to go untested to avoid quarantine.
Do you honestly think CIG or the current sitting political cohort is to blame for everything that goes wrong with this situation?
Give me a break! We are all in this together and there are some very irresponsible people going to work, grocery, out to clubs and taking it back home to their babies.
Others don’t want to get Vaxxed saying they don’t want anything “foreign” in their bodies.
Not everything is the “government’s fault”, believe it or not. SMH
1:54 someone who breached quarantine. Most likely a child since we had our major outbreak in schools. What exactly are you trying to say?
Yes! Who made the rules that didn’t get followed by those who don’t follow rules again? Blame them! Blame them all. Round them up and sterilize them to Protect our safety and the worlds. Quick! Before you think!
Never mind. All is under control.
As the Deputy Governor said they are “crossing their I’s and dotting their T’s”!!!
What a cluster @£&?!!!
Been searching flights and hotels for 2 days. Flights are limited and hotel prices are totally overpriced for the holiday season. People expect to pay a little more, but not 4x the regular price. Other islands are offering special deals to jumpstart their tourism. Why would anyone pay exorbitant rates when they can go to another beach destination that is offering specials?
Us who will be placed in danger for your vacay appreciate your concern
3:16
I think the idea here is much similar to governments. They know between the restrictions on children, limited travel altogether, and the potential to close again in 60 days because the system truly is unprepared, they both are taking a stab at any fruit that might/can come their way ASAP
1:50 small minded people like you should call the mental heath line before commenting.
People like you would have complained if the press conference went on for 4 hours which the Premier said was the time necessary to explain the plan in detail.
Please get help you have become exactly what you complained of a cluster $$$
If the plan needs 4 hours to be explained in detail we have a problem. Sheesh!
Panton: “. . .and being guided by the best data and science.” Really? Fully vaccinated can be Covid-19 positive, get sick, and transmit the disease but you’re dropping quarantine. I hope CIG
has invested in a mass of PPE and ventilators for GTH.
Spoiler alert. They haven’t. When a government allows business leaders to make their decisions, one can be certain they will all be motivated by profits and not people.
https://www.exploregov.ky/coronavirus-business-guidance
Here is some guidance that shows what CIG has done to assist businesses. They ARE leading the businesses NOT the other way around!
Y’all need to educate yourselves…this and the past government has done A LOT to support businesses and the community and I for one am sick of all the finger pointing.
What would you have done? Since everyone here has all the answers!
Damn armchair politicians! Y’all have nothing better to do than complain?! Read the above and learn what our government have been hard at work doing!! From the very beginning!
So tired of the BS
This plan should not only be focused on tourism. Re-opening impacts us all. If there are triggers that will put us back in lockdowns, homeschooling, etc., we deserve to know that and we deserve to know that PACT has considered what the ripple effects will be of accepting more COVID in the community beyond the narrow lens of tourists maybe needing a place to quarantine and whether we have enough ventilators. The whole debale with how the GTPS incident was handled was alarmingly shocking as it revealed that PACT had not considered any scenario of COVID re-introduction and did not have well-thought out playbook to guide them.
The business and wealthy cabal cares for one thing only, and it’s not people. It rhymes with honey
Translation for those of you that don’t speak Politricks: There is no plan
But there is a plan to draw one up, sort of.
Details of the plan need to address the unnecessary school closures. Can’t continue to force home imprisonment of two dozen families (or more!) every time a child tests positive. Remember – kids have very very mild symptoms. It is much more detrimental to them to have them out of school for two weeks than for them to have either zero symptoms (which 60-70% of children who test positive will experience) or very mild symptoms. It is also completely unfair to the parents, especially the vaccinated parents. Meanwhile, bars are open with basically zero restrictions, no offices with positives (and believe me, there are MANY) have shut down or forced the entire workforce into quarantine. Remember the grocery store employee and food service worker from last week? As far as I can tell, no grocery stores or restaurants have been shut.
STOP VICTIMIZING THE KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES!!!!!
We are experiencing a rapid rise in covid cases, we have gone from suppression to removing all barriers because there seems to be a belief that vaccinated people are invincible. Many of them carrying on as normal, no masking, hygiene etc.
No one is talking about the food supply chain, just look around the supermarkets to see lots of empty shelves of products that are getting harder to procure. Thousands of tourists will exacerbate this.
The CMO is now appears to have taken the role of spin doctor playing down the outbreak focusing on illnesses not being serious and low hospital admission, but with covid escalating at an exponential rate this is likely to change. We have a re-open plan with few details and everyone is jumping for joy.
Covid is serious always has been, and the vaccine is not stopping it. We are told with each new strain that we are still good, but the truth is no one can predict the final outcome of this pandemic yet so caution should be foremost, but we have just thrown it to the wind. The government is playing politics with a pandemic, no longer working for the people, but for the economy and profit.
Plenty of people saying ‘we can’t be closed forever’ bit of a non argument really I have heard no proponents of this, but we can stay closed until it is safe to re-open. the pressure groups have convinced the government that the economy comes first and foremost. When the premier announced closure to the year end he said it was because of concern from the people but his mind was successfully changed by the lobbyists.
For the record, I took the vaccination and I am for re-opening but not in the haphazard way it is being published.
We are moving forward with a safe and sustained reopening that protects our healthcare and education systems”. Panton tells us. But ask him what that plan is and how it will be accomplished and he will get a dumb look on his face that would make Geo. W. Bush seem like a scholar. Panton says: “Our guiding principles will remain the same: safeguarding the health of our community, protecting our health services, and being guided by the best data and science.” This is the same (so-called) leader whose government is sending non-vaxed census takers door-to-door into our homes crossing his chubby fingers and hoping no one gets sick. Earth to orbting Premiere: The UK (you know, our Mother Country and all that) is conducted their census primarily online. Sending out a census taker into the community was the last resort if the household did not return their data in any of several other ways. Panton and PACT at the most recent press briefing–and in regard to their general approach to Covid 19–are poster children for the saying “If you can’t impress ’em with intelligence, baffle ’em with bullchit”. Time for Panton and PACT to start impressing us…maybe at least just a wee little bit. I mean PACT need not have any more practice in spouting BS, they have that down to a fine science.
There can be no doubt that additional community viral load will arrive by air, and that a rising percentage of visitors and residents will demand some kind of hospitalisation and oxygen therapy, that isn’t currently being tested.
Like most places documenting two years of epidemic frontline experience, oxygen supply and flow-through capacity will likely be the weakest link in Cayman’s medical intervention arsenal.
In anticipation of this, CIG should compel the self-obsessed “Reopen Cayman” capitalists to voluntarily open their bill-folds and fund the $1-2mln oxygenation supplemental reserve capacity for HSA, and get those containers on a ship…stat. Otherwise they may merit some different viral hashtags come December.
still planning the plan…zzzzzzzzzzzzz
How many community positives has Cayman had over the past few weeks? — LOTS
How many peppel that tested positive had no symptoms and didn’t even know they were positive until being tested? — MANY (The majority)
How many people required hospitalization? — VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY VERY FEW (2, I believe)
How many required a ventilator or other specialized care? — ZERO
Cayman has already been living with Covid and doing just fine.
It’s time. Open up fully. Welcome tourists.
No quarantine for vaccinated adult travelers or their kids with negative pre-travel test.
Come one, come all. Get tourism going again.
Non-vaccinated? Sorry. You had your chance to get the jab. You still need to quarantine.
Anyone testing positive shall quarantine until testing ultimately determines they are negative.
It’s a no brainer. It’s not rocket science.
It’s time.
My car has been driving with a rattle for months, nothing has fallen off, nothing has broken and I haven’t had an accident, therefore I will keep driving it.
Speaking of no brains
Well at least now we can all sleep better at night now that the Civil Service is on it…
12:44. You have been sleeping under their protection for the past 18 mths. Go back to sleep!
The devil is in the details…oh wait there are no details.
1) What forms of vaccine proof will be accepted?
2) If an employee or customer tests positive will businesses be forced to shut down for a few days for a “deep clean?”
3) Have you figured out that you really don’t have to close schools and quarantine entire classes or grade levels because 2 kids tested positive? If not when are you going to get a workable plan for schools?
3) Will you have rapid tests available for citizens returning to the US? At home rapid tests are not accepted.
4) What extreme cleaning protocols will be required of vacation rentals and hotels?
5) Will masks be required outdoors?
6) When Covid cases continue to rise will you back peddle again and hit the pause button?
Details PACT details; we all need them, we all want them, and you must provide them ASAP. You should have had the details worked out BEFORE you made the border opening date announcement. As my grandma used to say, “Don’t put the cart before the horse.”
Panton: “. . .and being guided by the best data and science.” Really? Don’t believe you, sir. Fully vaccinated can be Covid-19 positive, get sick, and transmit the disease but you’re dropping quarantine. I hope you’ve invested in a mass of PPE and ventilators for GTH.
Fully seatbelted motorists driving within the speed limit can still be killed on the roads, and take innocent lives with them (including children) yet still we do not ban vehicular transport. We are putting convenience and living a life above lives…
Using syllogisms never makes for a cogent argument.
They got pressured into picking a date with no plans on how to re open safely. The RE-open Cayman people should have to pay for everyone who gets sick and/or has to be put in quarantine or isolation. Open your big pockets and pay up. If I get sick, I’m suing somebody.