PACT goal remains to reopen without retreat

| 07/10/2021 | 165 Comments
Cayman News Service
Premier Wayne Panton addresses Parliament this week

(CNS): The PACT government’s goal remains to reopen the borders to tourists in the coming weeks without having to close them again or see the country go back into any kind of lockdown. Premier Wayne Panton has said that government will give the country a month’s notice when it sets a date for lifting isolation restrictions. His deputy, Chris Saunders, said the aim is to do what no country has done before, which is to open up to visitors without having to close back down because of a surge in cases of COVID-19.

The decision last month to pause the reopening after the virus returned to the community has not changed the main goal of reopening and staying open.

“Our vision is to get the country to a point where we can continue the reopening programme and remain open in a responsible way, not just trying to stay open… but doing it in a safe way,” the premier said in Parliament Tuesday. This means being able to manage the “inevitable increase in COVID-19 cases that will come with reopening the border”, he added.

So far, no one has become very ill as a result of the current community spread and Public Health has been able to manage the testing and tracing, he noted. But this test of the system has given an insight into how ready we are for reopening, as that will present a bigger challenge than the current situation. He said there is more work to be done to be ready.

It has become evident over the last few weeks that public health resources are creaking under the pressure of the current local transmissions, even without any illness. Managing outbreaks and testing in schools is overwhelming and the system of isolation is unsustainable, as an undisclosed number of families are forced into quarantine.

The number of teachers in quarantine alone has forced schools into an early mid-term break, which is impacting parents, who may have had no exposure to the virus, with child care issues.

Meanwhile, people in isolation are complaining about difficulties in getting a response from either Travel Cayman or Public Health as children become sick or they need help getting supplies or dealing with employers pressuring them to come to work.

“The government is taking stock of the systems and improving… our state of preparedness,” Panton told Parliament, stating that the reopening plan needed to be, and was going to be, updated.

“We cannot continue to close all schools. We cannot continue to ban all indoor activities and exercise. We cannot continue to have the borders closed for much longer. We cannot expect to lock down for months to get rid of COVID, to get back to zero. That makes no sense. We have COVID in the community. We have to go forward. We have to live with it.”

Panton said tourism was an essential part of the economy and had to be revitalized, but the focus was on making sure the health system would not be overwhelmed. He said rapid testing will be used to help identify and isolate positive cases more quickly.

“In the coming weeks we will need to re-engage in the discussion around reopening our borders… We know the challenge is to balance the imperative to keep our community safe with the imperative of opening responsibly,” he added.

The premier explained that the aim would be to open to vaccinated visitors without the need for them to quarantine, while at the same time minimising hospitalisations and having no deaths in the community related to COVID. He said this goal was driving the plan.

In short, the premier outlined an opening scenario where there would be no need to retreat because government has created a safe environment for people to live with, but not suffer from, the virus.

“What we will do in the coming weeks is to give the country an effective, implementable, resource-identified plan that Cabinet has decided on before reopening, a plan which provides predictability, accountability and transparency that we can share with everyone,” he said.

Panton said everyone must share in the confidence that we can open successfully but the government was not just going to pick a date, regardless of the pressure coming from the business community.

“That is not the smart thing to do,” he said, adding that the government needed to properly evaluate the readiness before setting the date. “The fear of getting COVID is understandably distressing to many but the uncertainty of not having a reopening date is equally distressing to others.”

Panton said there had been a rapid shift over the past few weeks about the need to get ready to handle the virus but the hurdles to come were all manageable.

“We feel we have to give the country at least a month’s notice,” he said. After all of the assessments relating to the readiness, the government would then give notice about the plans to lift the isolation measures for vaccinated guests.

The current pause may now not last until the end of the year, but any return of visitors before the Christmas or New Year holidays is unlikely to be significant.

American Airlines’ plans to begin flying to Grand Cayman at the beginning of December, which were announced last month, have been postponed until next year, according to social media posts. While Jet Blue and Delta are still planning to fly here before the end of the year, the airlift will still be very limited, with only a fraction of the visitors who came to Cayman during Christmas 2019.


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Category: Policy, Politics

Comments (165)

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  1. Me says:

    I say we keep Cayman Islands borders closed fir next 20 years. Then reevaluate then and make decision. That give us time to make decision and totally shut down tourism

  2. E. Nervik says:

    The government and Hsa should stop communicating infections or how many have been tested and only communicate if there is a death. Open up the country by getting rid of the quarantine for the fully vaccinated persons and stop over reacting.

    • Caymanian says:

      In other words Political suicide and lets not forget GROSS Negligence. Yeah we can do that.

      That is probably the stupidest statement I have ever heard maybe next to drinking bleach and injecting light on the inside. Were you the co-writer to those also? Got your case of ivermectin yet?

  3. Anonymous says:

    After hearing all of this foolishness from the anti-vaxxers. I think the Government should go to Thompson shipping and buy 4 or 5 refrigerated containers, open the borders and let the chips fall where they may.

    We could have been out of this mess a long time ago but because of the misinformation spread the anti-vaxx faction they have managed to get a small percentage of people to hold out which will eventually be to their own detriment. It is a shame that one of them hasn’t contracted covid so that they could have a real perspective.

    • Anonymous says:

      Now Kenneth says American Airlines may fly in before Christmas. Are you dropping quarantine? Accepting the CDC card? If not, might as well stay closed as no one will come with those 2 conditions not clear.

  4. Lisa says:

    Will there be any concessions for those who have had a booster? Surely, if people have had both vaccines and a booster (especially given by HSA), should they not have a shorter quarantine time? I haven’t seen any mention of this. Is this a question that could be asked by the Press?

    • Anonymous says:

      The virus does not give get out of quarantine passes. Receiving all three shots does not mean that you cannot contract and then spread the virus. It just means that you are less likely to become severely ill and it probably limits viral loads and therefore transmissability somewhat. We got into this mess because people ignored the law and/or the incubation period of this virus. We cannot afford to repeat that blunder.

    • Anonymous says:

      There should be no quarantine for those vaccinated- that is so 2020! Get into 2021!!

  5. Anonymous says:

    Let’s open our borders 🎉

    • Anonymous says:

      Said the funeral director paid commissions.

      • Anonymous says:

        Learn to live with Covid or stay closed border forever. Stop delaying the reopening because nothing is going to change from today, next month, in 6 months, in a year. Covid will still be here. Stop the ridiculous panic. Vaccination rate is high. Open the border!

  6. Anonymous says:

    Given that all the external airlines (other than BA) have thrown in the towel for this season, I don’t expect anything until spring.

    When Panton laid out his opening plan at the Chamber lunch in June, he had no plan for what happens once a case did occur in the community (which was expected). Nothing.

    Why were you sitting on your duff for six months? No one believes anything you say anymore.

  7. Anonymous says:

    I believe this is total nonsense how our government is willing to opening our country to risk us of possibly becoming wiped out from this virus. We need to keep this country closed till mid next year and get rid of the community transmission.

    • Anonymous says:

      Where do you think covid is going? Covid is going to be around today, tomorrow, mid next year, and years after that. You sound foolish, tbh. The vaccination rate is very high and the risk if vaccinated is low. Stop the panic.

      • Caymanian says:

        Actually its starting to show signs of retreat in the USA. Floridas #s are starting to fall.

    • WipedOut? says:

      We are never going to get rid of Covid. And do you really believe the country will be wiped out? Some people will get sick, unfortunately some will die, but the entire country will not be wiped out.

      • Anonymous says:

        Stop the panic. You are starting to look nuts. The country getting wiped out. LOL. Starting to sound ridiculous.

    • youcan'twritethisstuff says:

      This is the absolute stupidity of comments – obviously you get your news locally and have never left this island. The rest of the world is living and moving ahead. If you are ignorant to believe because you are Caymanian (if you are) and do not need a vaccine because you are somehow more special than the others on this island – then you will be the fool getting sick and taking our hospital beds. Wake up, because nobody will feel sympathy for you but the other fools. Think about it – we are Caymanian so we don’t need the vaccine – then the virus hits and guess who gets wiped out???? Just madness. I don’t care if you take the vaccine or not – personal choice – but don’t hold others back because of your ignorance.

  8. Anonymous says:

    So basically we might, maybe, eventually, kind of consider the possibility of perhaps one day, sometime in the possible future perhaps start thinking about the possibility of conceivably floating about the idea of perhaps opening. Thanks for the update, boys.

    • Anonymous says:

      👍👍👍👍🤯🤯🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

    • Anonymous says:

      And that , 10:31, is what the airlines are hearing and what the tourists are hearing. Maybe, possibly, could be, September, October, February, back to Christmas, in a month, in a week, wth

  9. Sheriff says:

    ““What we will do in the coming weeks is to give the country an effective, implementable, resource-identified plan that Cabinet has decided on before reopening, a plan which provides predictability, accountability and transparency that we can share with everyone,” he said.”

    You can give us an “effective, implementable, resource-identified plan,” but it means nothing unless you actually follow though with the plan and stop waffling back and forth. Covid sucks, there is no doubt about it but the way forward is living with Covid in the community. A zero Covid plan doesn’t work long term. We were told PACT was ready to deal with community spread, we now see this was a total myth. What will be different this time?

    I will believe it when I see it and even then I will assume things will change in mid-stream.

  10. Caymanian says:

    Let me say this now.

    THIS IS GOING TO BE A SH!T SHOW.

    So, we had a few breachers and now we have full blown Covid-19 in the community with ZERO chance of stopping it. This is isolated incidents. Basically PACT is semi smothering the data so as to lessen the impact.

    Ever notice how the writeups flow with community transmissions coming after basically everything and especially after all our vaccinations so far. This is an old plow to bury relevant and important data far enough that people would stop reading. Lawyers do it often by smothering you with boxes and boxes of data so you cannot find the data you are looking for. This is no different.

    PACT is operating an emergency management approach testing mostly around incidents instead of probing the community at large like PPM did. PPM was PROACTIVE PACT is REACTIVE. PACT testing scope is far too narrow. As I have said before 6 ft and 15 minutes is something developed in the 1800s and we SHOULD have learnt so much after that. Things such as germs can travel up to 12ft to 16ft through the air. Small droplets can stay in the air for hours. You CAN catch Covid within seconds of being around someone with Covid. These are all facts you can look up yourself yet we are eliminating people to test based on this parameter and we wonder why we can not find who started this and why NEW cases pop up daily.

    Now we are going to open the doors they say an no locking back down. All I gotta say is GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!!!

    With hundreds of people coming and going daily the Cayman Islands will become a Petri Dish for Covid. Its not illogical to think 5 to 10 people out of 100 people on every flight could have and even spread covid to others on the plane as you are all basically breathing same air.

    So far we have been extremely lucky to not have any serious illnesses from the latest outbreak of covid but trust me on this, bucket keep going to the bottom of the well one day the bottom will drop out. The law of averages will EVENTUALLY catch up to us.

    My prediction….

    When we have our first or second death from this there will be an UPROAR like you have never seen before. People will start asking for a No Confidence vote against the Premier and PPM will be behind it.

    We will then enter into some variant style lockdown.

    People we are asking the deaf, dumb and blind to lead us. And the really sad part is they do not even know their inadequacies.

    LORD HELP US ALL!!!

    • Anonymous says:

      As bad as the pact’s knee jerk plans are, I would imagine your prescription would prove even more idiotic and in time we would still end up opening with covid.

  11. Anonymous says:

    The quote is to do what no country has done and close back down again.

    Please! Turks and Caicos opened in July last year and NEVER closed down and has had a booming tourism industry.

    This is smoke and mirrors they have no plan and want us to believe they are special.

  12. Truth says:

    Long live CIG. Everyone else that needs a job can go to the UK or back to where they came from. Thanks to a still functional financial service CIG does not need you to survive another year of Covid. They will only open when the money runs out for them and they can still live off the loan because they won’t be the ones to pay it back. So to cap it off, Cayman islands will reopen when CIG realizes they are running out of your money. Patience.

  13. Anonymous says:

    I’m tired of hearing that school closed because of teachers in quarantine. School closed because a significant portion of the student body tested positive for covid, and concerned parents kept pulling their kids from school. The student population at the school kept reducing significantly each day. Also, the students at one school had a big party which almost one entire year group attended. Students who attended that party tested positive. To make matters worse, PH did not take the time to understand the structure of the high schools and treated the cases there similar to how they treated the primary schools, pulling tutorial groups instead of classes.

  14. Mashup says:

    I’m dumbfounded how far behind cayman is with lateral flow testing. Only just now realising the importance of regular testing of critical workers and school kids. The vast majority of the developed world have been using these for a long time as part of their pathway to reopen borders. Yet the CIG are only now deciding to order them.

    • Anonymous says:

      This is one of the key reasons why the government isn’t ready to reopen. They have had more than a year to better prepare and they haven’t. This isn’t only PACT’s fault, and in fact, the PPM/Unity government was in power for a longer period of time when this should have been happening than PACT has been in power. But let’s not just blame elected officials on the inertia – what the hell has the civil service, particularly the HSA, been doing for the past year? Why didn’t we get rapid test long ago? This is all just gross incompetence.

  15. Anonymous says:

    Will there be a labor/social crisis?
    Thousands of tourism Permits pending.
    No effort to hire locals.
    Stipends to end in Dec.

    • Anonymous says:

      What! How can there be thousands of tourism permit pending. I’m not caymanian but even I see the need to hire local to ensure that the local population can survive. CNS can you probe into this? Because that is madness.

  16. Dave says:

    His deputy, Chris Saunders, said the aim is to do what no country has done before, which is to open up to visitors without having to close back down because of a surge in cases of COVID-19.
    REALLY SAID THAT
    GOD BLESS HIM

  17. Anonymous says:

    I’m all for opening the borders in the safest way possible. But clearly after seeing how the public health department responded to the school outbreaks by putting hundreds of families into 14 days of isolation and bringing the midterm break forward because too many teachers are in isolation Im really not sure the country is ready to open!
    Get a solid plan together, be proactive not reactive and safely open in the beginning of the year.

  18. Anonymous says:

    I support the PACT plan. Protect Caymanians and the health system first and place the burden of proof on non citizens then press on. The only way to get through the pandemic is to reach endemic. Get vaccinated or get COVID. That’s nature and you’ll never beat it. Open up and start living in the World again.

    • Anonymous says:

      Right, so courageous to impose vaccines on the voiceless, powerless pawns. It’s digusting.

    • Sarah says:

      What plan is that…from what I can see they are moving the goal post every few weeks depending on what sector puts enough pressure on them

    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, when the caymanians die out from having covid the expats will be here to take care of the Islands because we are vaccinated.

    • Anonymous says:

      The only way to get through the pandemic is to reach endemic.

      Please write sentences that make sense. Thank you for your cooperation.

  19. Pam says:

    Weren’t months notice already given? They rolled out their phased reopening plan months and months ago!

  20. Anonymous says:

    Hmmmm…the US opened up back after covid and never shut back down.What about Mexico? Canada?

    OH, and aren’t you a highly vaccinated jurisdiction?

    • Anonymous says:

      They have thousands of ICU beds, we have…..40 ?…..
      Good luck if you or a loved one ,are patient number 41.

      • Anonymous says:

        And the US has 350 million people and we have 70,000! We have had 18 months to get our health services ready. How much more time do they need?????

        • Anonymous says:

          Hopefully a year or 3

        • Anonymous says:

          I’m sorry are you suggesting that the US are managing their Covid medical/hospital crisis?! We all need to be on whatever drug you are on whether or not it also manages Covid!

        • Anonymous says:

          Enough time for all the expats to get their vaccine. What a shit show.

        • Anonymous says:

          They said they are ready. They would utilize whatsApp to fight covid. Find that compass article and try to figure out how exactly they are ready. I only understood about WhatsApp

        • Anonymous says:

          ‘Test us, we are ready”
          Cayman doctors have said. Can someone please make sense of what they were taking about, because I still can’t see how they are ready and what “ we’re better prepared” means? Thank you

          “ There was consensus that physicians [ Monday, 20 Sept., eight doctors from clinics and hospitals across Cayman] and healthcare facilities have been working since the pandemic began to prepare to tackle penetration of the virus in the community, but people should still do their part to protect themselves via vaccination and other preventative measures.”

          “ “We, as a healthcare community, are standing by to deal with rising COVID and I think we, as a panel, agree that we think we can handle an opening of the island,” Dr. Yaron Rado, chief radiologist at Doctors Hospital, stated”

          “ Dr. Nyali Taylor, vascular surgeon at Seven Mile Medical Clinic, added that doctors are better equipped now to deal with the virus, having built capacity and resources since the outbreak of the pandemic.

          She added they have “systems” in place that will allow them to mobilise as a medical community to tackle potential COVID cases.”

          “ She added that structures and strategies put in place would allow for expansion, in order to “receive, to treat, to support, to do the things that are necessary in order for us to manage and handle what comes”.

          “ “We’re very fortunate in the Cayman Islands to have a lot of excellent physicians and we can pivot quickly and I think that is going to be helpful when the borders do reopen,” he [Dr. Joseph Davis, fertility specialist ] suggested.”

          “ Dr. Sook Yin, a GP at Seven Mile Medical Clinic, stated that physicians had “banded together” in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020… The second time around, we are more than prepared, with the capacity now to do FaceTime, tele-consult, in privacy. We have all the perspectives of practising social distancing, so we, as the general medical community here, are better prepared than ever before. So if next we open up and have surges of cases, we know now what to do,” she asserted.”

          “ Dr. Archita Joshi-Bhat, from Health City as well as the infection control and COVID-19 advisory chair, agreed that the healthcare system is “better prepared than… one-and-a-half years ago”.

        • Anonymous says:

          Apparently quite a lot more time, since we seem determined to re invent the wheel. Despite being advised by public health England, we only decide to institute the UK’s policy on using lateral flow checks to minimize the disruption by quarantining whole classes and schools after we have tried it and failed, despite knowing that’s exactly what happened in the UK. And then we realise we dnt have any lateral flow kits, because there is no way we could have anticipated needing them a couple of months back when we decided we were going to open up. SMH.

        • Anonymous says:

          Don’t know, how long des it take to add Another 100 ICU
          beds ?

      • Anonymous says:

        Wrong on number of beds. We have emergency field hosp beds we have more than enough for the population

    • Anonymous says:

      FFS! 700,00o+ people dead in the USA alone, and millions grieving, and you call that a sucess?

  21. Anonymous says:

    Managing the demands of the business sector to re-open no matter the cost with the quiet hopes of the rest of us that we will not be burying relatives for Christmas is a tough job for anyone. Hopefully this government will get it right.

  22. Mikekim says:

    I had Covid recently. Apparently. That’s what the PCR test said. Apart from a feeling a little tired I noticed nothing.

    • Beaumont Zodecloun says:

      May you be from a long line of regionally dominant genes.

    • Covido says:

      Noticed nothing “Yet”. Long term Covid effects are unknown

    • Anonymous says:

      both my parents caught COVID 19 pre-vaccine in May 2020 and both died.

      My sister caught COVID the following month and was symptomatic, and has suffered the last year and a half with long COVID, with an enlarged heart and scarred lungs. She was competing in Iron Man races, she now can now only climb a flight of stairs or walk 100 yards before she has to rest and she’s in constant pain from her joints and suffering from cluster headaches.

      Glad you were OK mate

      • Caymanian says:

        I don’t want to like your comment because its painful to read but thank you so much for sharing.

        Many here take Covid for a joke and its because we are lucky so far but when people start dying the reality will truly sink in.

        All these damn fools don’t want to get vaxed because of some bs they read. They are our problems. They are the petri dish of the next variant.

  23. Anonymous says:

    We were clearly not prepared for the outbreak of the past few weeks. We can re-open without retreat if we take a pause now to get prepared, and actually do get prepared this time.

    The short list of things government needs to do is something like:

    Make sure that the boosters have been given to minimize that risk

    Make sure that lateral flow or other rapid testing is available to quickly assess outbreaks and minimize disruption

    Make sure that the new anti-Covid drugs are available on island in adequate supply for a worst case scenario to minimize loss of life

    Make sure that we have enough properly trained and experienced hospital staff to deal with a protracted worst case scenario

    Make sure that the contingencies have been worked out for the possibility of critical staff becoming ill

    and then cautiously proceed!

    • Anonymous says:

      LOL! The pandemic started 18+months ago and vaccines started 10+ months ago! How much more time do we need to train our hospital staff?

  24. Anonymous says:

    Wayne needs to tell us what the trade-off is. How fast we open without adequate preparation (that should have been done) versus how many lives?

  25. Anonymous says:

    Medications that could prevent 50% of hospitalizations and 50% of deaths of both vaccinated and unvaccinated people are coming out in November. I guess that is insufficient reason to pause. What are a few lives.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/01/covid-antiviral-pill-halves-hospitalisations-and-deaths-maker-says

    • Anonymous says:

      Just wait for the “oh BuT ItS bEeN deVeLopED toO quIcklY” or “I wAnt chOiCe” crew to get hold of this, they’ll be downing horse dewormer by the gallon

  26. Anonymous says:

    PACT is going to push ahead with re-opening even if it kills you – orders you from the business bosses.

    • Anonymous says:

      Hysterical much?

    • Caymanian says:

      Can we sue the government if someone dies if they did they could and yet CIG opened and allowed someone to come in and create the chance?? Just curious. I mean if a government policy is directly attributable to causing a death can they not be held liable? Seems some lawyers might be having sweaty palma now.

  27. Anonymous says:

    It’s not just tourism that is impacted by the quarantine regimen. It is businesses which are unable to function. The quarantine system is like a wet blanket on our economy. Until this statement, the government (like much of the local population who live here), have appeared to be clueless that all the things we take for granted, that made Cayman great, were driven by the ability of businesses to bring suppliers and travel freely to and from Cayman to conduct commerce.

    We are Seafarers for Goodness sakes, it should be obvious that we need to be able to come and go without impediment.. “Cayman” as a nation does NOT work if people can’t freely come and go. Tourism is only the most visible part of the problem.

    I am pleased that at long last our Government has acknowledged the obvious and has messaged that they are doing something about it. Let’s seriously hurry before more good people are forced to leave.

    It will take 3 times as long to build back than it was to close down. We have hard times to unwind no matter which way we cut it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Quarantine may be a wet blanket but a wet blanket is exactly what is needed when there is fire (Covid) all around.

    • Not really... says:

      We are not seafarers and haven’t been for a long time.

      I get that lots of people call themselves “captain” and even more get a pmt for CIG every month, but it has been several generations since men went away to sea.

      Now we are a society of obesity, diabetes and Burger King.

      It is really sad. We also went from households with strong women to a society with hundreds of young women with multiple children from different “baby daddies”.

      It is our loss and the root of many of our problems.

  28. Robert Jones says:

    Why not just make shops, hotels, restaurants and gatherings vaccination only for anyone over 12? Surely that is the best way to fully open without straining health resources.

    • Anonymous says:

      It seems like that would be too easy and make too much sense. This is increasingly becoming the norm in much of the world.

      Maybe they are worried about backlash from their unvaccinated voters.

  29. Anonymous says:

    Prediction, This PACT nongovernment will shutdown the country in and in full lock-down the moment there is one person sick from this flu. Which will be very likely when you run a country like a normal country, were people do get the flu.

    • Anonymous says:

      Prediction – if the rest of the World continues to function normally and we do something like that, the people with the money who have been making this economy hum, will try leaving for a while – and our government and the Caymanian people will feel it in their pocketbook.

  30. Anon says:

    Far to little far to late !
    We went from a country being a world beacon of managing
    The pandemic to a laughing stock
    The Bahamas / Turks / BVI are loving your incompetence.
    If for one minute you think Covid isn’t coming to Cayman you are insane.
    You have lost the majority of the islands residents respect
    Nobody trusts a word the government says ? You politicians are fat and happy destroying the economy of these islands
    While your people are suffering unimaginably.
    For those who don’t believe me let’s see if the PACT government would be willing to have a snap election and see how well they do ?
    Open up the damn borders NOW !

    • Anonymous says:

      Translation – Let the dying begin!

      I doubt the comment about the respect of the majority of residents but I am damn sure that the vast majority of those who vote do not want the borders thrown open to Covid at the moment. No thank you!

      • Anonymous says:

        You already have over 128 cases of covid. Learn to live with it. You have a high vaccination rate. Get over the panic.

      • Anonymous says:

        Better to die on your feet than live on your knees – Throw open the borders and let’s manage this.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yeah, because the ones who get to vote are all in gov jobs or on stipend.

        The rest of us that actually work for a living and contribute to those cushy gov jobs and free handout money are sick of this

  31. Anonymous says:

    Thank goodness. Not before time and the sooner they open the better. I’ve just been told some people are coming here on holiday in December, from the states. They’ve never been here before so no home here. Is it a ghost flight they’re booked on? Have asked where they’re staying (or think they’re staying) and will be interested to hear the answer.

    If people are still not vaccinated then it’s just too bad and they may end up bearing the consequences, but nobody can complain that they didn’t know there could be a problem if they get ill. The rest of us will continue to I’ve our lives, albeit taking care, when appropriate.

    • Anonymous says:

      Who cares if you know people coming here?

    • G says:

      there are people coming here on holiday this week, from all over the world. Not sure what your point is. Plenty of flights too

    • Anonymous says:

      Is this a joke?
      PACT says they still plan on reopening, but will give a month notice.
      Geez- it’s already October and no firm date given yet. So, as a tourist, I will at least have to wait some more to see WTH the government is planning.
      No information on if quarantine will be dropped. No information if the CDC vaccination card will be accepted.
      No US airlines planning to fly in over Christmas ( per the schedule we are seeing). We are just seeing US airlines canceled until next year.
      Who you opening to? When?
      No one is confident in the CI government reopening plan – not the tourists, not the airlines and I’m not even sure the residents.

    • Guido Marsupio says:

      Maybe a ghost flight, but Cayman Airways has a big splash screen on it’s booking site, so no visitors can claim ignorance that ordinary tourism is open when they book their flights.

    • Anonymous says:

      7 months later, my doctor ran antibody titre and there’s almost nothing left in the tank. So, I guess “too bad” for me, if arrogant dumbasses were running things. Let’s recalibrate our optimism against the now-widely available science and guidance, await booster delivery, and get those into arms.

  32. Anonymous says:

    Without retreat? These cowards been hiding under their rocks for weeks now. They might as well be French the amount of retreating they be doing.

    • Anonymous says:

      The PPM are vocally opposed to reopening our border. PACT have paused their target by one or two months to get boosters into arms, and somehow they are “the worst govt ever”?!? Get a grip.

      • Anonymous says:

        2:48 pm. You must not forget Aldart is king of the yard and he is trying every trick to upset the apple cart.

  33. Anonymous says:

    “reopen the borders to tourists in the coming weeks” how’s that possible if he’s giving us a months notice first?! 🙂

  34. Anonymous says:

    That’s fine, but PACT will need to adapt the Emergency Health Orders (yet again) to formally re-insert requirement for public mask-wearing and 6 feet of social distancing, non-compliance consequences, and police powers. They are not in the current version of the regulations that came into effect September 22nd (SL67). When they pick a lane, they need to understand everything that comes with it.

  35. Anonymous says:

    Gotta feel for the PACT politicians.

    The guys and girls before them had plenty of time to get their grubby hands deep, deep into the cookie jar before they had to do some actual work.

    Poor PACT have been thrown into the deep-end before most of them have even had a free lunch let alone a condo or piece of land.

    • Anonymous says:

      why would you feel sorry for somebody who got exactly what they wanted? It’s the rest of us I feel sorry for.

  36. Anonymous says:

    This whole thing is going to blow up in their faces. They are already the worst government we have ever had…now they will just go down in burning flames. Pathetic set of people.

    • Anonymous says:

      Wrong. Alden McLaughlin’s PPM (which Premier Panton was Minister of Financial Services) and Unity governments were the worst, even worse than MacKeeva’s UDP government. Get your facts straight.

      • Anonymous says:

        I hope you didn’t withdraw on your pension in protest to the then worst government as you said? I hope you protested vehemently that you refuse to get any type of financial aid or stipends if you were eligible? Did you?

      • Anonymous says:

        Nothing could be worse or more shameful than Mac and hid UDP lackeys.
        Sadly they are once more running this country with poor Wayne believing that he is in charge.
        Watch your back Wayne, the snake will strike again.

  37. Anonymous says:

    yawn…more wayne waffle….
    this is a classic ‘soon come plan’ about making a plan sometime soon in the future….
    american airlines gave us the real update earlier this week.

    • Anonymous says:

      How am I getting there, Wayne? Swimming? The flights cancelled due to your last flip-flop. AND, because of that, I pulled my hotel reservation. OH, you forgot to tell me, are you going to accept my CDC card now that it has 3 shots on it? My state does not do the digital formatting on it. What about the quarantine?

      • Beaumont Zodecloun says:

        Your manner seems inconsistent with the prevalent culture.

        This thing has been hard on all of us. Be well.

        • Anonymous says:

          I’m plenty well. Just booked a 10 day holiday to Turks and Caicos instead of Cayman for my family. It was very easy to do. I didn’t have to wonder if the flights would disappear. If the dates were really happening. If they would accept our vaccination cards. If we would have to quarantine for half our trip.

  38. Anonymous says:

    I hope he succeeds but honestly this sounds doomed from the jump if the goal is to have no deaths. If the gov is serious about that then they had better ignore all of the bs misinformation campaigns about available therapeutics and read the dozens of studies themselves. If treated early, the disease often does not progress to hospitalization but it has to be dealt with early if they want to avoid having people take up hospital space. Get the meds on island and available now.

    • Anonymous says:

      Agree.

      Sadly, treatments that have potential to save lives are rejected, I just don’t get it.

      XXXX

      In the worse case it won’t work, in the best case it dramatically improves respiratory function in patient. Why such information is suppressed is beyond me.

      CNS: It’s not suppressed. These papers are meant for doctors and public health experts, but idiots read them, having spent 10 minutes on Google, and think they are equally qualified to analyse them as those who have spent decades in academia and research in this area. The internet runs with it, and then you get a bunch of instant experts demanding their doctors prescribe what they think they should have and become a nuisance to everyone else.

      The link you gave, which is here, is about treatment for people with severe COVID-19. So it is not a substitute for the vaccine.
      See Ivermectin: How false science created a Covid ‘miracle’ drug
      Stop assuming that public health experts are not keeping up with the latest developments. They are just in a better position than you to know what to do with this information.

      • Anonymous says:

        Thumbs up to CNS

      • Anonymous says:

        Thank you CNS for bringing certain people back to reality.

      • Anonymous says:

        Sorry CNS even the NIH has information about ivermectin (for humans) being used to treat COVID. It may not be approved by the FDA for treating COVID but there are peer-reviewed studies. A BBC link surely doesn’t trump information coming directly from NIH.

        CNS: Here is what the NIH says about Ivermectin for treating covid – “no clinical trials have reported a clinical benefit for ivermectin in patients with these viruses”. Read the whole thing here.

        I think you are confused. If you use the NIH search function (which is powered by Bing) you find links to some of the pro-Ivermectin papers, none of which have been accepted by any public health authorities as providing convicing evidence that Ivermectin is a viable treatment for covid. The fact that they pop up on the NIH site via Bing does not mean that the NIH or any other US government department has endorsed it for treating COVID, and in fact they categorically have not at this stage and won’t until someone actually proved to their satisfaction that it does any good.

        The BBC article is useful because most of us are not qualified to fully understand and analyse scientific papers. Here’s another article. It might help to actually read them though.

      • Anonymous says:

        Here is the link.

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248252/

        CNS: Yes, as explained above (or below, I’ve lost track). You used the Bing search function on the NIH site to find this – or perhaps landed here via some other route. It doesn’t mean that this paper is endorsed by NIH, and I’ve linked the actual NIH position.

        Ivermectin is listed as being in trial phase here – scroll down a bit – but that’s still a long way from it being approved. This does not mean it never will, it just seems unlikely.

        The NIH approved treatments are listed here.

        • STX says:

          India has had great success with Ivermectin – you don’t need a scientist with a white coat to see it. I have had Covid and I took Ivermectin as did my entire family when they were sick. I won’t call it a wonder drug but me/we fared much better than other friends and relatives who didn’t take it. The drug has been around for decades – its safe, its cheap, and since no one can seem to get a magic bullet for Corona…why not?
          Again, I was very sick – but I and my family were back on our feet substantially quicker than those not on it.

          CNS: First of all, I’m really glad that you and your family are all better. However, this is anecdotal evidence from a small group and not clinical proof – there may have been other factors, diet, overall health, etc. Whatever the reason, I’m sure it’s a relief to you all.
          Regarding India – Why HCQ and Ivermectin were removed from India’s Covid-19 treatment protocol
          Ivermectin remains one of a number of possible treatments for covid that are undergoing clinical trial. So far, none have convinced public health experts of its success.

          Its use in India was sparked by a huge spike in deaths in a country where poverty rates are high and the avialablity of vaccines was low. People were scared and desperate. Here and in the US, vaccines are readily available and prevention is better than any cure.

          It’s an effective anti-parasitic drug and is safe and it’s cheap when used properly. The worry for most health experts is that many people are listening to the hype and self medicating with disastrous results. This from Canada – Calls spike to Alberta poison hotline about ivermectin after anti-parasitic drug touted as COVID-19 treatment

    • Anonymous says:

      We may have deaths and that is sad but its reality. We used to get cruise shippers who brought us Norwalk and other bad germs. My friends auntie die of complications from Norwalk brought by a cruise shipper. Death is part of life and so is getting sick

  39. Anonymous says:

    American Airlines cancelled flights until at least mid February (to MIA, CLT, DFW, ORD). United Airlines (to Houston) cancelled all flights as well about a week ago. United doesnt have a proposed restart date anymore.

    Delta is not showing any flights until January at the earliest.

    • Anonymous says:

      Take a boat

    • Anonymous says:

      We’re gonna be lucky to get those airlines back. They can’t keep having to add flights to the schedule and then cancel them every time Government changes their mind.

      Hopefully, they’ll make plans to return once our borders actually open.

    • Anonymous says:

      good!

    • Anonymous says:

      Thank goodness they are more sensible and have more interest in the welfare of Cayman residents than our politicians.

      • Dave says:

        If you are referring to the airlines, their only interest is profit and ultimately shareholders. And despite what you think, the Cayman Islands are not #1 on their priority list. They have a limited supply of resources (planes, staff, etc.). Routes cannot be added in a matter of days, significant planning is required. Instead of the daily multiples to MIA-GCM-MIA, plus other city pairs. We will get limited options for flights when they do return. All of this is good for Cayman Airlines, because they will have the bulk of the seats coming here and continue to charge us the normal cost of a Chicago or Newark leg, for a flight to Miami…

    • Anonymous says:

      If CIG receives promised boosters in good shape by mid-Oct, they might well green-light a reopen date for late Nov “USA Thanksgiving”, the air-lift will switch back on, and we may get a winter season yet.

  40. C'Mon Now! says:

    Normally when you have a plan there are timelines and targets included in it.

    PAC needs to get its act together.

    They continue to underwhelm and destroy confidence in their ability to manage the situation.

    I would suggest spending some money on a communications expert to help them focus their message.

    Panton needs to realize that the waffle and backtracking is not helpful to anyone, not matter what side of the re-opening question you fall on.

    • Anonymous says:

      Are you insinuating that the politically appointed “communications experts” in GIS and the Office of the Premier are not doing a good job?

      • Anonymous says:

        Communications experts can only work with what they are given

      • C'Mon Now! says:

        There is no insinuation. It is a statement of fact.

        For example Kenny Boy’s video was unintentional comedy gold.

        But if they have a plan they need to be much better about how they communicate it.

        If they don’t have an actual plan then maybe what they say doesn’t matter, but most politicians would want to at least look like they have a plan.

        A good press secretary who got them to at least show up on time, stay on message, limit the waffle and time wasting would be helpful.

        Even if you disagree with them a consistent message that acknowledges what they have said in the past would be better.

        Right now they just squirm when Andrel Harris asks them a question which includes a quote of their own words from a prior press briefing.

    • Anonymous says:

      Just to be clear, I think you meant “PACT”, not “PAC”. “PAC” is the Public Accounts Committee and PACT is the Government.

      • Anonymous says:

        Nah, the T went out the window within the first week pretty much.

      • Anonymous says:

        Or no longer giving them any credit for Transparency…

      • C'Mon Now! says:

        It is intentional, sometimes I only give them credit for the P as the rest is AWOL.

        I’m not even sure if they meet the definition of a functioning government at this point.

        A government’s basic functions are providing leadership, maintaining order, providing public services, providing national security, providing economic security, and providing economic assistance.

        They are missing out on quite a bit of that, particularly the leadership and economic security parts, but they are providing economic assistance, but what happens when the money runs out?

  41. Anonymous says:

    PACT couldn’t open an automatic door.

  42. Anonymous says:

    Zero confidence in PACT with no public service mandate.

    • Anonymous says:

      They will never do that. If the civil service went on strike, as they have done in the past…this country would fall in an instant. Government knows that cant mess with the civil service, they are the ones holding the cards.

  43. Anonymous says:

    It’s not an early mid-term break, it’s an extended mid-term break, otherwise known as a school closure. To hell with the GTPS kids who have already missed a month of school.

  44. Anonymous says:

    “Chris Saunders, said the aim is to do what no country has done before, which is to open up to visitors without having to close back down because of a surge in cases of COVID-19.”

    Dear Mr. Saunders,

    The only way that you will achieve that goal is by sacrificing the mental and emotional well-being of our families. It is too high of a price to pay.

    We must learn to live with Covid-19, like Singapore, Portugal and Iceland. All highly vaccinated jurisdictions.

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