COVID spread a ‘shock to our systems’ says Turner
(CNS): People should keep calm, Health Minister Sabrina Turner said on Wednesday night in a video message to the country following news that 123 positive COVID-19 cases were recorded in the community in just 24 hours. Turner said she was sure the rising numbers came “as rather a shock to our systems” after more than 18 months in a COVID-free bubble.
Maintaining that government is prepared for the current surge, despite the evident difficulties for Public Health, she said the rate of vaccination will keep people out of hospital.
“But now we must join the rest of the world in managing community spread among our population,” she said. “It was inevitable that it would happen, and we are prepared. We have been preparing for a long time – and certainly since I took office. It is very likely that we will continue to see numbers rise as we increase testing. This is also down to the highly contagious nature of this virus, and in particular of the dominant Delta variant.”
Turner added that the country was in a good position to manage the virus because of its highly vaccinated population, with 79% having had at least one dose.
“We have a highly prepared and resourced healthcare system with the necessary medical
expertise and equipment available on island to treat severe COVID-19 cases should we see them occur,” she said, adding the population was well-versed in the protective measures, such as wearing masks, social distancing and practicing good hand hygiene.
Currently, over 60% of cases are being recorded as symptomatic but most appear to be mild to moderate and people are self-treating at home. Two of the four COVID patients currently in hospital are suffering severe symptoms of COVID-19 and require oxygen support.
But the minister said the situation was being closely monitored in order to respond to an increase in serious cases. “We are tracking this data in order to be able to respond to any changes in these trends right away,” she said.
Going forward, the daily update provided by the Public Health Department and disseminated to the public through the government communication channels will be changed, the minister said. But how this will be changed has not been revealed. Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee will be providing regular messages and periodic updates as needed, she said.
However, but following two days of delayed or missing reports of key information, Turner did not explain how the public will be informed of the number of new cases each day, the level of active infections, symptomatic or otherwise, hospitalisations, quarantine numbers or vaccination levels.
Asking people to be patient as Public Health rolls out the new process for informing people of their test results, which are now all sent by email, she said the department wanted to ensure accurate as well as timely results.
The spread of the virus to the Sister Islands was “inevitable in the current pandemic situation”, the minister said, but offered assurances that people on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were receiving the same support as those on Grand Cayman.
“Everyone affected by COVID-19 in the Cayman Islands will have access to support in getting groceries and other supplies, as well as with getting their results in a timely fashion, and being able to apply for the ex gratia stipend if eligible,” she said. “As we are doing with schools on Grand Cayman, we will be offering lateral flow tests in Cayman Brac schools so we can quickly identify cases and advise on isolation as needed, with the intent to make the process as quick and efficient as possible.”
She said the national guidelines on COVID-19 testing for students and children will be released to the public today, Thursday. She did not say, however, when the full policy regarding lateral flow testing and its role in reducing the number of people needing to isolate and for how long would be released.
The current isolation policies could become unsustainable very quickly unless families can use the rapid home tests to allow negative members to move more freely, even when other family members are negative. The knock-on effect of spread through households can put even average sized families into isolation for more than a month, where even just one child is unvaccinated.
The burden on government and the private sector where workers are forced to quarantine for weeks on end and the disruption to education for local children will be quite significant without a change in approach to the isolation of vaccinated people who test negative for SARS-CoV-2.
See the minister’s message below:
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Category: Health, Medical Health
Anyone paying attention to international news knew in August to make sure you’re vaccinated, have a large supply of masks, wet wipes, and vitamin D.
Minimize interactions with people and stay healthy, knowing that 1% of the Population is an acceptable number of deaths for selfish sociopaths to get haircuts.
Alden achieved and kept COVID free status for Cayman community even when there were no vaccines. This useless PACT is not able to achieve that or even try to achieve it even with the help of vaccines. Wonder why they are just letting it spread and aren’t putting any restrictions at all. Who is dictating to them?
What? Under Laden we had the borders 100% closed and a 3 month lockdown. Surely you are not suggesting thos emeasures are repeated!?
Don’t know if you’ve heard but Covid has affected the whole world! And Cayman has never been Covid free and never could be. Insane to think that anybody could contain a worldwide pandemic long term, it’s a horrible disease but needs to be lived with. Vaccines have been proven to reduce the impact of Covid no one ever said they could limit spread.
10:27 pm: That is the dumbest comment I have ever seen on Cayman News Service. You are obviously more interested in pumping your political choice above anything else! You are disgusting! No….. Make that “Utterly Disgusting!”
Literally nonsense, we didn’t have known cases back then because we weren’t testing as much residences as we are now. Let’s not make this about politics, the health concerns of the island need bipartisan support not division.
According to BBC, 2/5or 38% of unvaccinated will get Delta from a household or close positive (whether vector is vaxed or not), and 1/4 or 25% of fully-boostered vaccinated will also become new vectors, whether knowingly symptomatic or not. Cruel like squid game: once you are positive, unwitting primary contact, or secondary, you are obliged to remove yourself from the game and awaiting a testing clearance to the next round. Sick or not. Contacted by HSA or not. Do not go to the grocery store. Thanks.
Another monoclonal therapeutic was approved today for EUA.
Sotrovimab reduced severe disease and death by 85%.
I’m sure our experts are all over it…
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/fda-authorizes-covid-19-antibody-drug-from-glaxosmithkline-052721.html
Thanks for that post. I appreciate your ….. I am not sure that I am even that confident.
Ha! I said weeks ago the few cases that were it there was just beginning. Wait until it really starts spreading, this is nothing yet.
Glad your self fulfilling prophecy came true and that you are revelling in ‘I told you so’ glory. Are you Nostradamus by any chance? 🤡
It is unconscionable to detain citizens, and deprive them of their rights. Vaccinated or not. I did not commit a crime. I am not giving up my liberty for some non science based optic that this government wants to promote.
Hey, Annie:…… Would you give up anything other than your ‘liberty” to save someone’s life?
Oh dear she makes Dumb Dumb look intelligent.
I really had faith in Panton but his team are a dusaster
The only shock to the system is that this empty vessel totally unqualified person is the minister of health. Makes Dumb Dumb Seymour look good and that’s no small feat.
Thanks Wayne for your total lack of judgement.
To be fair she replaced ‘Donkey man’ and old health was Julia exorcist. It has improved.
You think this is an improvement? Wow.
At least John John didn’t really think he was intelligent.
LMFAO he definitely thinks he is. have you llistened to him for more than three seconds? lmao
Time for another song contest
He didn’t?…… I don’t believe that.
Nobody else would take the radioactive post
The way she jumped ship when she thought her crew wasn’t going to get the majority to form the government and then jump back when they did, shows you all you need to know about her mentally and morally.
That is true, but I already knew about that.
All PACT do is make videos behind closed doors Because when asked face to face/in briefings they can’t answer or never know the answer and then get attitude like what Ms. Turner did on the last one #shocked
#translucancy
Sabrina has always had a stink attitude. Prospect voters gave her a little power and made her even worse. She never looks or sounds pleasant. Ever.
To 28/10/2021, 11:02pm: the majority in Prospect fell for her hoopla, the lights, the stage, the showman-ship. The quiet contender would have made an excellent Minister of Education but hey, democracy is the tyranny of the majority… Now we have who we have. (shrug)
@ 9.36am I voted for Michael Myles as I have known Sabrina a long time and did not trust her. Hopefully Prospect voters have woken up and will vote her out next election. Even her tone while addressing the public is upsetting.
Seems to me Turner is living in a mental bubble so to speak. What did she really think was going to happen? It’s inevitable, suck it up, gear up, deal with it, live with it, it’s not going away any time soon.
I have a feeling it’s the vaccinated that are in full melt down mode while the unvaccinated are mostly chilled out. It’s the vaccinated that fear opening the borders, not the unvaccinated. It’s the vaccinated who deny science where natural immunity and proven therapeutics are concerned, not the unvaccinated. It’s the vaccinated pointing fingers and blaming the unvaccinated for the many lies and failures perpetrated by the “experts”. Not all but many. I’m vaccinated so they speak freely with me as “one of them”. I wonder if this crowd will ever show any humility as each failure, miscalculation and outright lie is revealed. I have a feeling they won’t. They’ve invested too much credibility capital into it. Our society has become very sick from covid, but not from the virus itself.
All true.
NOT!
Can I buy you a coffee some time?
What to be shocked about? The virus would do exactly what it did in other countries. The sooner the better. 75-90% are vaccinated in Cayman, nothing to worry about then.
Exactly. Based on other countries, in 18 months (Christmas 2022) I would expect 40 positives a day still. I imagine we will be close to no COVID around 2025. This is nothing to be ‘shocked about’. it’s inevitable and as unavoidable. The issue is locals who have no idea.
And who the F are you? To say locals have no idea but then talk about the number of cases in 2025. Excuse me Nostradamus, but perhaps you should leave the projections to people who know what they are talking about.
LOL. What are you smoking? There are much larger places than here with less than 40 cases a day.
Name one?
North Korea
How could anyone know how many cases nor the Korea have when it is a faMine ridden closed state with a brutal dictator?
Anarctica!
Some of the epidemiology experts did project 2024/ 25 as a fair target date back in mid 2020 , to see a sharp fall-off of COVID in most countries , so people really might need to consider that in any long range outlooks.
How can out Health Minister say this was a shock to our system. ! Everyone with a brain is not one bit surprised NOR are they afraid, so please stop the fear mongering that will drive many more of the Covid uneducated to hide under their beds.
Sabrina obviously hasn’t been following anything that has happened during the now almost two year old Pandemic.
Health Minister, please tell us about the physical state of the four people in hospital, two of whom are requiring oxygen. Have they all got underlying conditions ?
Open the Borders, time to live with facts and without fear.
This is a ‘highly planned for’ ‘shock’ There you have it folks – our Minister of Health demonstrating what a non sequitur is.
Inch long finger nails,tattoos, and Rasta hair should be against the law in Cayman, all three is foolish and makes NO SENSE.
Huh?
How about condemning ‘Child Abusers’ & ‘Sexual Predators’ instead of people who’s sense of ‘fashion’ differs from your own?
The CAYMAN ISLANDS is a free society, If you wish to live under Extremism, then by all means move to Biden’s America.
Why is it a shock?
– territory gets first wave
– vast majority not severely impacted due to high vaccination rates
– depending how many people follow basic common sense with isolating, masks and distancing will determine case load
– peak in a few weeks
– all manageable due to high vaccination rates
Why the hysteria?
Because of the illness lag and based on present numbers the highly likely overwhelming of our healthcare facilities in about a month.
But they are ready!! They even said TEST US! We are Ready!
Not Likely! All vaccinated
It’s an, on going situation that changes constantly. It is way too early for that conclusion.
Agree. We now join the rest of the world in managing how to live with Covid. Can only live with our head in the sand for so long….
Small minds are fuelled by hysteria and conspiracy. These people think inside the box and the box seems to be getting smaller with every successive administration.
I am glad to see that many are starting to understand that this is a result of reducing quarantine time to 5 days.
All done as part of a plan to benefit the greed of a handful business owners.
This is just the beginning. Wait when the hospitals are full and some of us are going to die.
People, this has been willingly put upon us for the benefit of a few.
For your own mental health, I think you need to let this go and stop posting about it. You have made basically the same comment many many times.
Idiot. Average time to get it is 4 days after contact. So 72 hour pxr test pre travel plus 5 days quarantine, which is closer to 7 days in reality means likely not contagious. Think you’ll find the breachers are the more likely cause.
You would do well to read up on incubation period. PCR test only confirms you are not contagious not that you don’t have covid. The SCIENCE says 14 day incubation.
You clearly know nothing about statistics or epidemiology. Look up ‘mean’,’median’ and the shape of a ‘long-tailed distribution curve’ or shut up.
Do you really think that all the major scientific body in every country apart from North Korea specified 14 days as the necessary quarantine period by coincidence?
Lies. Quarantine breaches (Caymanians) caused it. We hadn’t had 5 days of the 5 day policy before the outbreak, so your explanation is a lie.
First community spread Sept 8. Sept 9 was change to 5 days. So your rationale is impossible – first 5 day people would have left quarantine on Sept 14.
That’s true, Caymanians don’t get punished for quarantine breaches.
And they live off expats hard work
LMFAOOOO says the one that left a home country cuz it was clearly worse lmaoo go home
Any response 4:06? Or are just going to keep pretending you know what you’re talking about?
Five day quarantine was definitely place from July and that is before the community spread.
Wrong. 5 day quarantine came in in september as part of phase 3 of reopening plan.
“All done as part of a plan to benefit the greed of a handful business owners.”
Actually all done so taxes can be collected to continue to pay the Civil Service….
I feel the same way shame on our government
True, hold the panic, observe what is happening.
To draw your own conclusion. It can be done.
All we get from the press briefings and video messages are people telling us how we should think, feel and conduct ourselves. I have had enough of the incompetence and don’t need a lecture from any group or individual that seem to be making things up as they go along.
Think for yourself, we all can think for ourselves?👀
It is being played out in front of us, do what is best for you.
Cut down the isolation to 5 days only to please the money hungry who could not wait to have tourists swarming back; 10 to 14 days’ isolation was sensible (people have tested positive even after 21 days!) The goal was not to have zero cases, but to minimize community transmission as much as possible. We could have sold Cayman to the very rich as the only (close to) Covid-free destination in the Caribbean. Well, that opportunity sailed now.
The very rich tend to be able to assess risk and know that in a post vaccination world covid is not any different from the flu.
Except that it is – even some who are fully vaccinated get long covid. I never heard of anyone getting long flu. Getting it is a bit like playing Russian Roulette, except there are more than six chambers in the gun. The following article was published yesterday. I guess you have to ask yourself, do I have that gene and if so, do I feel lucky?
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/breakthrough-infections-can-lead-long-covid-genes-may-explain-critical-illness-2021-10-27/
Some people die from the flu. I think that’s even worse than long covid. The point is, risk is calculated with the flu or with covid or with driving a car or riding a bike. Your risk assessment might be different than your neighbor. You are free to take any additional measures you see fit to mitgate your risks. You have options.
Long Covid is very rare, stop making stuff up.
Can’t slow down the wealthy’s lifestyles no matter the effect on those who must enable them
The government keeps repeating “It was inevitable” to cover up their incompetence in imposing strict protocols, which HAD to be followed.
PPM managed to do that, but this bunch of amateurs are so eager for popularity that they have forgotten who they work for.
It was NOT inevitable, PACT/UDP screwed up.
Nonsense. It was inevitable same as every other country. You can’t police every person obeying rules which are the responsibility of those people to follow and use common sense, like masks isolating and hand washing, distancing etc.
100%
Not true. Many Asian countries were able to police the pandemic. The difference? Discipline is a key social component
Absolute tripe! It was always going to happen! Why should Cayman be the exception in the whole WORLD?
But they are NOT ready.
And where was?
@2:54pm – we have already sold Cayman to the very rich.
Wrong. The cleaning, building, air con service, customer service and way more here in Cayman is terrible customer service. Nowhere near the quality required.
Close to covid free … is that like being a little bit pregnant?
The government must have been the only group that was surprised by the highly transmissible nature of the Delta variant. It is also clear that they are not ready and prepared to reopen the borders despite their past proclamations. A small amount of honesty would go a long way at this stage.
Zero deaths. Just get on with it
What a waste of time
Honesty??? What’s that?? Not much to be found in the Cayman leadership in the last 20 years!
Is it really a shock…? What did they expect was going to happen.
Honestly I believe they said “Just let it go now and lets try for herd immunity.
The interesting point is what happens if a child dies from it. What will the parent do?
Highly unlikely: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57766717
Get promoted more like OR early retirement on full benefits…….
Uninformed idiot – what about kids with special needs, underlying conditions and all those poorly nourished obese kids raised on fast food breakfasts by absentee parents…..those kids are fully in the firing line.
Life is full of choices.
prepared and shocked!!!
great stuff pact!….zzzzzzzzz
100K infections per day no quarantine no mask and 5 flights per week we need not wonder whence this came. can the good Dr Lee tell us which variant its is? or shall we guess?? Free vaccine they say but free virus they Play. Poor old Cayman cant get the colonial yoke from around its neck.
100K a day would be more than the 71k population??
Idiot , it was the colonial yoke that gave you free vaccines so you could boast 80%.
Go back to Jamaica where you can enjoy independence from prosperity.
Curious she did not mention the government’s failure to do anything about the A/C systems the circulate Covid aerosols in schools and other public buildings. That must also be part of the plan.
This time of year we should be opening doors and windows and letting the fresh air in.
I really hope the change to “government communication channels” and Dr Lee giving us “periodic updates as needed” is not another way of saying that PACT is somehow going to be even less transparent.
Because they “is stupid” and that fits the agenda they want to push…
And their leaders hands is clean and his heart are pure.
60% are reported symptomatic because when you go for the test because you’ve been in contact with someone there is no “contract tracing” option and they tell you to put Sympthomatic!!! useless.
I tested yesterday, still waiting to know if I am one of the 123. Why it takes so long to send an e-mail saying stay home or you are negative????
Seriously? They’re just saying that people are symptomatic because there’s no other option on the form? That is insane. Surely they must realise that when the stats show 60% symptomatic that makes people think that this thing is much worse than it actually is?? We need accurate statistics and the person in charge of this aspect needs to be fired immediately. Yet another example of government incompetence.
If that is true and was an official decision anyone who signed off on this should resign or be fired. How are you expecting to gather good data for decision making when you do things as dumb as this.
The world has known about contact tracing since Feb of 2020.
This would also explain the seemingly high level of symptomatic cases.
Resign or be fired as a Cayman government employee …Rightttt
My family are 4 people who had to put ‘symptomatic’ because ‘contact tracing’ wasn’t an option
Only if we had 18 months to plan for this.
What did you think would happen by abandoning sensible quarantine procedures? Lock us down for 3 weeks and bring back 14 days quarantine for new arrivals and strict penalties for breakers. Job done.
And people’s jobs and livelihoods? Just tough luck? And how would that be viewed by a volatile financial market? Self self self …. Hate to burst the bubble but Covid is a worldwide pandemic that there is no avoiding in a sustainable way.
@4:10 PM- you have seen that over the past 12 months the stock market has soared despite the ‘volatility’ around the world?
Did I mention the stock market? It soared as the world dealt with Covid whilst we hid. Has no effect here. Hedge funds pulling out due to no confidence in the island is a risk to going backwards on quarantine.
But the quarantine and border rules has nothing to do with the community outbreak?
I just canceled my flight and hotel for a Christmas vacation in Cayman. You people have lost control and don’t appear to want to do anything about it.
Thank you. We have an incompetent new government that is not following the science. Hopefully next year will be better for everybody.
Yeah! Maybe next year we will have better covid varieties.
We ain’t ready. No we’re aren’t. And is this the right time to start working on, and thereby slowing down respond at, the Emergency department at HSA!
What do you suggest? What has been done in your country to reduce virus spread?
Good please stay where you are.
No one believes this is real. Come on.
No one outside of your home and fellow Q Anon morons
Don’t let the airplane door hit you on the way to Bermuda
Very wise of you. People have gone mad here. Happy holidays anyway, and hope to see you once sanity returns.
100% troll.
You are making this up….
Lol. You are here and you wear 3 masks and get angry when you see others who aren’t in a state of panic.
🥱
what were you thinking, planning on arriving in a rapidly evolving situation, one in which no other country has successfully navigated? If I didn’t live here, I wouldn’t come here until things were level, and I damn sure wouldn’t risk my family or our safety on rapidly-changing circumstances.
It’s why I’m not willing to travel to the U.S., even though I desperately need to see my Grandfather. Just had the booster, but unlike some people who want to view it as viral kevlar, I’m not going to take any changes exposing my Grandda to anything. He is also fully vaccinated, although he had the J&J.
In all honesty, we (a very large group of friends and family) would be there tomorrow if the restrictions were dropped. The virus does what the virus does. Once you are exposed you have natural immunity, or you can try the vaccine, or you can just try to limit contact with others. Sorry CI is at the start of the spread, but I would assume with your high vaccination rate it will still be a success story.
If you’re obese, american and don’t indicate.. good riddance
Is it true that the positive kids mostly attended the same camp over the school break? Was public health able to make any link as to potential source?
If a school camp was the potential source what are the plans for over Christmas break? Will employers allow a work from home to avoid this? Will MoE provide lateral tests and require all students to have a negative test prior to a return to school in January?
Put the kids in a shelter for the holidays.
At this point where they got it is irrelevant, everyone will get it, the focus should be on boosting immune system and early intervention education.
Looking at where they got it is relevant so changes can be made to avoid spikes in the future. Do you want to have repeated spikes after each school break?
The answer is yes, because the parties and profits demand it
Absolutely! There was one camp held in Elizabethan Square last week with SEVEN confirmed cases (so far). One member of staff was not vaccinated
Sabrina – what are Government doing to flatten the curve? The current restrictions are plainly not enough. The rates of infection are much too high. Make a decision. Inaction will kill people.
We flatten the curve by doing the things the science recommends and what we have been told. Being responsible for ourself.
Very hard when you are forced to go to work in an office every day with 100 unmasked coworkers.
You can still wear yours.
Time to have mandatory vaccinations for all Caymanian Civil Servants and all health care workers before it is too late.
The time for action is now.
No. It was 8 weeks ago. Now people will die, and some will die because of civil service inaction and incompetence.
Nevermind the restaurants and bars blatantly disregarding safety
Don’t panic Mr. Mainwaring….don’t panic, don’t panic!
© Corporal Jones
Wur awe doomed, doomed a tell ye!
© Private Fraser
If PAC really believed anything she said, we would not have panicked and skipped the October 14th date to move into Phase 4.
They have had weeks and months to prepare for things and it is a shambles. The Lateral Flow tests were approved on October 6th and the Pilot program supposedly began on October 14th. CIG and Public health need to be able to react within days not weeks on these sorts of things.
The refrain of “We are ready, we are prepared” doesn’t hold water with the lack of a clearly communicated plan and the definite sense that they are still making things up as they go along.
Thankfully we have a high % vaccinated and people will start to change their behaviour to better protect themselves. To this point we have basically been Florida with very little in terms of restrictions since this outbreak started.
Total bullcrap damage control speech, they are neither prepared or ready. There is no action plan, just a message to remain calm. No doubt all the politicians have access to premium health care with no lines to wait in too! Actions speak louder than words. They are only saying this was inevitable to justify the increase of spread we will have when the tourists come. This is a disgraceful government led by a megalomaniac.
I agree with you, and that’s without knowing which of the megalomaniacs you consider to be the leader.
You all elected a bunch of people who did not know each other and expected them to reach consensus easily. They cannot make up their minds on anything and are allowing that Minister of Tourism to lead them down this path. That man approved those parades. They are now approving a Fun run for Pirates Week. They hid the amount of quarantine violations for a month. You cannot make this craziness up. Dah wah you get.
It’s time for us to follow the rest of the world folks. We’ve seen how it’s played out everywhere else in the world and we can’t hold back the tide forever. COVID is here to stay in the world, and that world includes Cayman. Let’s all do the things we know will work to minimise spread and catching it personally – vaccine, social distance, hand washing and mask up!
It really doesn’t matter how much we debate it here on CNS, Facebook or anywhere else. It’s frustrating and blame won’t change the situation. It is here, that fact will not change, so let’s handle it the best we can
Goes to show you hat CIG did to its own economy was S-T-U-P-I-D
Yes money before health. They just don’t care about the middle class/poor folks until election, then they tell
Lies and the fools vote them in again, and again. Same ole s… just different voting year
Yes, CIG is made up of politicians who talk about doing great things for the Cayman Islands, but in reality they are more interested in getting all they can for themselves as long as they can. It has been going on for many years! So greedy, so disgusting.
Capitalism and oligarchy on super steroids
How do you sterilise your hands with inch long finger nails? Asking for a friend.
👍👍👍comment of the day
When will the booster be available to 40+?
thats part of the unreleased plan…that no-plan-pact are still planned.
Yesterday at the Brac lots of expats people under 40 years of age was getting the booster.well that’s the Brac, any thing goes, it only depend on what the individual wants, no civil service worker gives a sh..
What does the labour law say about employer’s obligations to pay healthy staff who cannot work for weeks because of a government policy?
It doesn’t. And Government’s suggestion that it somehow qualifies as paid sick leave without any attempt to change the legislation emphasizes its ineptitude. This is NOT the private sector’s problem to deal with alone.
Obviously, things are quite different now than what they were a month ago, and PACT has said absolutely NOTHING with regards to what definitive actions they are going to mandate in light of the situation we now find ourselves in.
For example, the limit of 150 persons at an indoor event as a way to limit the spread of Covid is now laughable. Either impose severe restrictions or remove the restrictions completely. Everyone has their own opinions about which choice would be the right one, but for God’s sake you can’t claim to be the Government and just sit there collecting a big fat salary without making decisions and taking responsibility for them.
Sure they can just sit there collecting a big fat salary. That is exactly what they have been doing… Well they talked about having a meeting to think about starting a plan some day.
The policy seems to be: go get some. The faster this chews through the community, the better the hotel tourism outlook for March Break.
Oh yes they can, yes they can.
Just watch them.
Indoor party with about 100 persons is how the Brac spread happened. We should go back to dining outdoors and restrictions on indoor events. Bars shouldn’t be open after 12 midnight and they should have limited capacity.
I’m thinking a Covid colony is the way to go. At FIN perhaps?
Good place for a pool party. Way better than that tasteless Phase I pool of San Sebastián.
We see you Jerry!
Don’t blame Americans because you don’t follow Covid protocols and therefore Covid is spreading rapidly through out the local community.
You obviously don’t understand the culture here.
Time to replace the incumbent government. Non Confidence Vote please
replace with what??
no-plan-ppm?
I hate politicians that have to read every damn briefing they attend. She sounds like a recording.
Stop this quarantine nonsense it is not sustainable. Rapid tests should be used and people need to return to life. Focus resources on the vulnerable by supporting them in staying home with stipends and groceries etc.
Just let everyone take care of themselves and be down with it. We’re all going to get covid eventually, so it might as well be now.
You only get covid once?
Got em
#science
You can’t be Covid free and have a Covid tracker up over 800 which what it was a month or so ago. There’s always been Covid in Cayman especially with 52 breaches in August. Think if all those people with the summer colds, allergies and sinus infections got tested like they are now doing. You don’t think that would’ve been Covid!!!!!
I knew two people who had that summer cold and both got tested. Both were negative for COVID – they had a cold. You don’t know what you’re talking about.
ah yeah. So why didn’t all the travellers test positive? or people leaving? No it was the insane decision to reduce quarantine to 5 days in a pandemic due to loud mouths who won’t quarantine.
Incompetent PACT back at it!
How can this be considered a shock. It’s simple math in terms of exponential growth/spread, as exampled in pretty much every country around the globe. We want the country open to sell it to Americans? this is the price we pay to have that.
Americans have come here vaccinated, plus they take a PCR test before coming to Cayman and leaving isolation. I seriously doubt American visitors were the ones inviting people over to play dominos while they were in quarantine. Perhaps if the government had of thrown those folks in jail like Skylar Mack the outbreak wouldn’t have come before the borders were open.
But the borders haven’t actually opened yet since quarantine won’t be dropped until Nov 20. Why are you blaming this on the reopening?
Sensible quarantine was 14 days. They lowered it to please a bunch of money grubbers and inconvenienced travellers
The positives were never connected to travellers. It’s just as likely that it was a breach, interaction with airport staff, or illegal entry.
Both New Zealand and Australia kept their strict 14 day hotel quarantine and still ended up with outbreaks.
actually no they didn’t. They didn’t have proper quarantine procedures.
I don’t know about Australia but I’m not sure why you are saying this about New Zealand. From what I’ve heard, the last outbreak was not from improper quarantine procedures but just from the delta variant being so infectious. One theory is that the person might have just opened their hotel room door.
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/100430934
Part 1 of the opening was reducing quarantine to 5 days so that Covid would start spreading before rather than after 20 November. Clever plan – except they have no clue how to control the Covid they released.
either way, we want to open up to sell this place out to Americans, so this was always going to be inevitable, local breaches or not.