Active COVID cases reach another new high

| 24/11/2021 | 110 Comments

(CNS): Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee has revealed that, as at 8am on Wednesday, 24 November, another 176 people had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 from a batch of 1,139 samples, raising the number of active cases to another new high of 4,140. One of these positive cases was in traveller and the rest were cases of community transmission.

Hospital admissions had not increased, following concerns yesterday when six patients had been admitted in the previous 24-hour period. There are currently 28 people in hospital. Quarantine is still taking its toll on the workforce, however, as there are 4,192 people in isolation.

The situation on the Sister Islands is improving, as active cases are now down to just 14, with only one new positive case over the last day on Cayman Brac.

The total number of cases recorded since the start of the pandemic stood at 6,459, more than 5700 of them recorded in the last eleven weeks.

Despite the high rate of infections and continuing spread of this coronavirus through the community, the rate of first time vaccinations is just inching forward. Only 95 people got their first shot on Tuesday,

However, the booster programme remains popular. Up to Wednesday morning, 9,739 people (14% of the total population) have received a third or booster dose. The national vaccination rate for people who have had both shots currently stands at 78% of the population.

CIG COVID-19 information and resources

Other help and hotlines

Report positive lateral flow test results

See current vaccine and testing schedule

An Isolation Support Line is available to help by delivering groceries or other essential supplies for people required to isolate suddenly, and who do not have other resources and support.

For Isolation Support call 946-3530 or 1-800-534-3530 or email isolationsupport@gov.ky

Operational hours 9am-4pm, Monday to Friday, and 9am-1pm on Saturday.

For mental health support, the Mental Health Helpline can be reached on
1-800-534-6463(MIND) from Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm

If you have flu symptoms contact the 24-hour Flu Hotline at 1-800-534-8600 or 947-3077
or email flu@hsa.ky

If you are having difficulty breathing, call 911


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Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (110)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Is PACT paying any attention to this new variant? If so where is the travel ban like the one the UK imposed today???? Maybe they are planning to fill cruise ships with this new variant and sail them to Cayman?

    Guardian
    “More from the UK’s Health Secretary Sajid Javid on that new variant from southern Africa. He said:

    The early indication we have of this variant is it may be more transmissible than the Delta variant and the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective against it.

    Now to be clear, we have not detected any of this new variant in the UK at this point in time. But we’ve always been clear that we will take action to protect the progress that we have made.

    So what we will be doing is from midday tomorrow we will be suspending all flights from six, southern African countries and we will add in those countries to the travel red list. Those countries are South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana. We will be requiring anyone that arrives from those countries from 4am on Sunday to quarantine in hotels.

    If anyone arrives before then they should self-isolate at home and take a PCR test on day two and day eight. If anyone has arrived from any of those countries over the last 10 days, we would ask them to take PCR tests.”

    • Anonymous says:

      Well they only come from Africa via London, Europe (or occasionally US) – so I wouldn’t worry! The other main hub travel bans cover us!

      There will be new variants and waves for many many years yet -that is why it’s correct to get your booster, and for the border to be open – it’s about personal responsibility now.

  2. Anonymous says:

    So maybe all the virologists and pandemic specialists on CNS can answer this, since so much faith has been put in LFT. My child tests positive with two LFT’s, public health informed and the child placed in isolation. PH said no PCR required. A few days later with no symptoms the child tests negative on LFT. Public health says the child must still remain in isolation for the remaining time, no PCR confirmation. So a child that is now negative is forced to miss school when at least by LF testing are not positive. It seems the test is a one way ticket only. Even if I got an independent PCR it doesn’t change.

    • Anonymous says:

      First mistake was notifying Public Health. Had you not, once your child was negative on the LFT (which means no longer contagious), they could go back to school.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why are you testing a child who’s perfectly well?

  3. Anonymous says:

    Exactly, the question is: Is it moral/ethical for the CITA to want to entice tourists into the country when cases are on the rise and many contacts will be unvaccinated?

  4. Anonymous says:

    We need a way to get the people in quarantine out sooner. How about two days of negative LTF?

    • Anonymous says:

      I think (actually I know….) many people are taking the LFTs, and if positive, not reporting it. From personal experience, most of these people are just staying home until they test negative.

      No point in reporting it and getting locked up for an arbitrary number of days. M

    • Anonymous says:

      2 days would my catch anything at all and leaves a much greater risk of positives walking around.

  5. Bill says:

    Deaths from Covid among the vaccinated population in this wave have soared to zero.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Makes no sense doing all this testing on a tourist when there is so much community spread. They are probably the safest people in the community and putting them into large populated testing areas are not the smartest thing to do when there is community spread and some of the staff that will be doing these tests are not vaccinated.

    • Anonymous says:

      Get over it. 3 LFT is nothing, in and out within 5 minutes, I just have 1 left to do and I am good to go. It is beyond easy, why must you all constantly complain. Don’t you get exhausted?

      • Anonymous says:

        Because its a waste of tests, time, money, and creates major plastic waist of rubber gloves, tests, packaging.

        • Anonymous says:

          Boohoo hoo, it’s happening all over the world.

          • Corruption is endemic says:

            It actually isn’t and these tests are mainly for show that the tourist situation is “being managed”.

            We have a messed up system that adds very little discernable protection, inconveniences many and will undoubtedly financially benefit a small few that may or may not be connected with decision makers on this.

            You can draw your own conclusions on whether the LFT approach on vaxed tourists and returning citizens is a good idea or not.

            I think it is a load of crap, but that is just me.

      • Anonymous says:

        Just following orders…… engage your brain

  7. Anonymous says:

    I did a FOI request asking to see the Covid-19 model PACT used for reopening. They informed me that only one part of the model is ready for release, and that part states the maximum number of persons expected to infected was 71,106. All the rest like deaths etc. will be modeled after the fact, as they all agree that gives greater accuracy.

  8. Anonymous says:

    I see in cafeteria of govt bldg…wkers enter masked..then take them off and sit and chat 2 ft from each other…in each other faces over lunch? Why? Dude…makes no sense…

  9. Anonymous says:

    Good question 7:59. What about a positive LFT on day 5 or even day 2? Are the staff in the clinics vaccinated w/ a negative PCR test? All, but one, of the recent cases was community spread, isn’t that where the testing should be focused?

    • Anonymous says:

      The reason for initially differentiating between community spread and incoming travelers (although the decision makers in PACT haven’t as yet figured this out) was to isolate and stop the spread through community transmission.

      Community transmission is now the overwhelming source of new infections, and will continue to be as the PACT government has neither the ability nor the desire to prevent it.

      When someone is infected with the virus the source is irrelevant, but the people who fill out forms will continue to do what they have always done.

  10. Anonymous says:

    I am in Florida where hardly anyone wears a face mask or obsessed with hands sanitizing. Nobody follows covid testing or cases statistics anymore. Nobody talks about covid other than media.

    The stores are full of people, the roads are busy, Canadian and european snowbirds have finally arrived. Nobody is freaking out or monitors what others people do.

    I have a rented condo in Cayman that I want to sell. I need to prepare it for sale, but not crazy to actually visit Cayman right now, for it is suffering from a severe case of collective madness (based on the comments here).

    • Anonymous says:

      No need to visit Cayman to prepare your condo for sale. Condos in Cayman are selling like hot cakes sight unseen. List it today and you will have offers tomorrow.

    • Anonymous says:

      Enjoy that lull in between infection waves. Florida’s last predictable wave of illnesses and deaths peaked in August. Even then, with hundreds of needless DeSantis-policy deaths every day, I agree that numb red state Floridians didn’t seem to register a care. With just 60% of population vaccinated, it seems inevitable that their tally will accelerate into another avoidable wave towards end of Dec and peak in January.

      • Anonymous says:

        It’s like Republicans want to lose elections more by killing off their own. Luckily the non radicalized Republicans are all vaxxed.

    • Anonymous says:

      8:42 comparing the State of Florida to Cayman is quite ridiculous. We are a year or more behind the rest of the world in living with Covid. While the rest of the world was dealing with huge numbers of cases (and deaths) we were living with zero Covid in the community. Now that we are in the midst of community spread – any death in Cayman is felt across the 3 Islands because it is a small community.

    • Anonymous says:

      Are the portable morgues still set up there or have they taken those down already?

      If you don’t want to take basic safety precautions like wearing a mask or hand sanitizing, then I think we’d all prefer that you didn’t come here to sell your condo. I’m not sure if you read a lot of international news, but please also realize that Florida is in the minority of places that won’t take those basic precautions to help save people’s lives.

    • Anonymous says:

      Well no one expects anything better out of Florida. Shithole of the United States.

  11. Anonymous says:

    is name calling the best your sheep brain can muster? It’s a sign of your diminished intelligence that you cannot make a coherent argument without resorting to insults.
    Very embarrassing 🙈 😳 🤦‍♂️

  12. Anonymous says:

    Shame there is a jab against dumbf*ckery, we could get PACT quadruple vaccinated in short order, with windbag wayne first in line.

  13. Robert Mugabe IV says:

    Stop the madness.
    The only figures that are important regarding hospitalization and paint the correct picture of how dangerous this virus is (or the next one), are……..

    1. The number of people that have died.
    2. The number that are on ventilators .
    3. How many are vaxxed and have underlying conditions
    4. How many are unvaxxed and have underlying conditions.
    Anyone over the age of ten can make up their own mind about with/from Covid.
    The crazy ever changing Govt protocols that follow no science and frankly don’t give any credibility to the vaccines is quite shocking. The latest protocols for multiple LFT tests for vaxxed up to 10 days after arrival is MADNESS
    Practically no other country on earth has adopted these same protocols.
    This Govt is completely deluded with the reality of this pandemic.
    Completely and utterly a shambles.

    • Hubert says:

      Can somebody tell me where the idea of multiple LFT tests for based people up to 10 days came from?

    • Anonymous says:

      you seem to be forgetting about long covid, which affects over 10 times more people then die from the virus.

      It would be good to know how many people are suffering from it also

  14. Anonymous says:

    If there was 1 more case, it would be a new high. How about reporting the daily case numbers are decreasing?

  15. Anonymous says:

    It will seem bad but it will calm down soon. Luckily most of us have enough sense to get vaccinated so that we can protect ourselves better. Get rid of the nanny state and move on.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Risk of COVID-19 infection more than DOUBLES 90 days after the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, Israeli study finds
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10240501/Risk-COVID-19-infection-DOUBLES-90-days-second-dose-Pfizer-vaccine.html#comments

    CNS: Yes, the Daily Mail relies on its readership to not read past the headlines. “Double” sounds like a lot, but double of a very small number is still a very small number. The article actually makes the case for booster shots to continue to provide protections. Israel has been saying this for months, and so has the UK, which is why we have boosters here. See the Times of Israel – Top health officials say unvaccinated are driving new rise in COVID infections

    • Anonymous says:

      Well done CNS, The Daily Mail, for the uninitiated, is a hate spreading, lowest common denominator, bile spewing, racist, rag.

      The readership is generally made up of moronic bigots, which unfortunately, is quite a lot of people.

  17. MackB says:

    Most of the so-called experts and leaders in the Cayman Islands don’t know what they are talking about for the most part. Our leadership has always been controlled by big money and will always ultimately make decisions that are in the interest of big money. People need to start to think for themselves and, to the best of their ability, make decisions that will protect themselves and their families. People are largely on their own and can’t rely on the government when things get tough. The government is just there to take, take and take from the average citizen.

  18. Anonymous says:

    I think it would be useful for the government to find out what the public thinks about their management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  19. Natural herd Immunity coming :) says:

    The more unvax people get Covid, the better. Then all these fear mongerers about the virus causing death will be seen as unnecessary. The more people do simple early home treatment and recover, it will even make the vaccines look ineffective. 🙏🏽peace

    • Anonymous says:

      Early home treatment? We will just end up with people dying at home in their beds. Or going to hospital at the last minute begging to be vaccinated when it’s too late as happened in other countries.

      Just go get vaccinated. It’s safe, free and available today.

      • Anonymous says:

        My sister in and her husband are sick right now. They follow 5 days early treatment protocol-got all medicine and supplements in advance. They are doing just fine. In fact they’re not bedridden sick. I believe my sister got covid in 2020 while in Florida, for she lost sense of smell. May be it is flu they’re having now. Not tested. Not jabbed.

        My friend in Latvia is also sick with covid (confirmed by testing), that include her parents in their 60s. They are also prepared and follow the same protocol. All are fine. No one is obese. No one is jabbed.

        My daughter is a nurse, had worked with covid patients for 1.5 years then quit after vaccine mandate, which surely would kill her, for she is still recovering from GBS she developed after flu shot 10 years ago. She got an exemption from flu shot, but not covid. Her doctor is not recommending the covid jab. She has an arsenal of home remedies that kept her covid free all the time she was around covid infected people.

        So don’t talk about things you know nothing about. People don’t die at home. They die in hospitals. Anesthesia for a person with comorbidities is very dangerous, to say the least.

        Enjoy your day! And give Thanks! 🤯🍁🦃

        • Anonymous says:

          Wow – you seem to know a lot

        • Anonymous says:

          Wow – you seem to know a lot of sick people! I’m happy that they are all doing well. However, I can also give you many examples of seemingly healthy people that died of covid. And examples of people asking doctors for the vaccine as they are being admitted to ICU. And at the height of their outbreak, even Bermuda had cases of people dying of covid at home because they thought they could treat themselves.

          You are right, I’m not a medical doctor but neither are you. So maybe try listening to what the actual health professionals are telling people and go get vaccinated. At the very least, stop spreading misinformation because you could endanger someone’s life.

        • Anonymous says:

          Why are you on this site if you don’t even live here?

          • Anonymous says:

            Huh?

          • Anonymous says:

            I’m not the original poster, but I am on this site because my family is traveling to Cayman soon and every day I log on the rules of travel there change, so I want to be aware of what else is needed. (LFT, medical insurance) Don’t want to get there and be fined or put in jail.

    • Anonymous says:

      COVID has been mutating for 2 years through many “open” freedom-loving countries, and yet there is not one single ratifying example of flu-based herd immunity to point to. That’s because the formerly-known-as novel coronavirus is still not a flu, even if policy-makers and dreamers want to wishfully bet their lives and health that it might be, just to keep select local businesses and activities kinda open, sometimes. Best of luck.

  20. Anonymous says:

    Lots of natural immunity building up in the community. When combined with with increasing vaccinations, reinforced by boosting, we are probably within 10 days of the peak, then we will steadily decline.

    • Anonymous says:

      It has been shown all over the world that natural immunity doesn’t protect as well (or last as long) as the vaccine immunity does. Everyone who is eligible to get their 3rd dose (six months after the 2nd) should get it ASAP.

      • Anonymous says:

        State your sources please.

        • Anonymous says:

          How many sources do you need? There are hundreds of articles from numerous reputable news outlets worldwide, written by top scientists and epidologists, all confirming for a long time now that the vaccine provides far better protection than natural antibodies. The vaccine doesn’t create fake antibodies.. it mimics the Covid virus then your body creates that protection. This is common knowledge. You’d have to be mental to decide to go for catching Covid and natural immunity instead of three doses of the harmless Pfizer vaccine.

      • Anonymous says:

        Wrong. Natural immunity has been shown to be superior to vaccines time and time again. It’s not recommened for those who are high risk, age and comorbidities, but for everyone else it appears to be the best way to go. Especially with available therapeutics.

        • Anonymous says:

          You do realize that no pandemic since the Black Plague has ended without a vaccine, right?

        • Anonymous says:

          You do know that you have to catch covid to get natural immunity..Are you willing to take that risk? If you are, you are a total idiot..

        • Anonymous says:

          Stop posting lies that cost lives. Hospitals around the world are full of almost all unvaccinated Covid patients, many young and healthy, fighting for their lives

    • Anonymous says:

      Natural immunity is thought to have even less staying power than fleeting vaccine efficacy. So far, it’s proven to be an elusive political stop-gap rather than an eradication tool. Plenty of human hosts getting COVID twice, thrice, and even four times elsewhere. If we are relying on fabled herd immunity to normalise life, 3-6 months from now we could be replicating this infection exercise all over again, in another wave, just like all the rest of the frontline nations are, with all the same interruptions. Let’s hope it’s not against a more deadly vaccine-resistant strain by then.

  21. Anonymous says:

    let the horrible anti vax hate speech begin…. round 214… begin

  22. Anonymous says:

    Embarrassing. 3 reasons:

    1. The elderly and vulnerable in hospital – happens in every country
    2. Many sectors of caymans population being ridiculous with social distancing, proper mask wearing and other basic civil protocols – embarrassing and clearly below any respected developed nation
    3. Clear numbers of anti vax people – again embarrassing and stupid

    What a joke. Some bloke brought a beer in blackbeards today with a mask below his chin and tried to shake my hand. Another mask less Brooke tried to hand me some Jesus group businesss card preaching, maskless, in cabana bay, wouldn’t shut up and tried to grab my arm close up to take his pathetic card.

    As I said, embarrassing. Absolute cretins.

    • Anonymous says:

      There are hawkers and peddlers everywhere in the world. Just thrust up a firm open palm and say “no thanks”. Not a wave or high five palm. They do need to feel seen, but also hear no. Usually, you don’t even need to say anything else to desist, and you’ll be doing everyone else behind you a public service. Works in all languages.

  23. Anonymous says:

    Can you clarify the isolation numbers? Is that in excess of the active cases or inclusive of them? Presuming the former, but shuddering to think we have that many people under isolation orders…

    • Anonymous says:

      I will wager that hundreds of them are blatantly breaking the isolation requirements all over the island. Our selfishness will be our downfall

  24. Anonymous says:

    That positive traveller a bona fide tourist…

    Or a returning resident?

    We’ll never know. And it’s of course none of our business.

    But it does make you wonder.

  25. R Harrington says:

    Is it my memory playing tricks or wasn’t it said we’d not go to Phase 4 until our vaccination rate for BOTH shots got to 80%? Yet we went ahead last Saturday when it was still under that figure…anyone in the know that knows for certain please?

    • Anonymous says:

      As a general rule, any fact-based questions or comments on PACT that draw a high number of “dislikes” are probably true. Please take it personally. It’s no so much they dislike what you said, but rather the fact you said something they hoped that everyone had forgotten.

    • Anonymous says:

      As the population number was guessed it doesn’t really matter, it’s about 80% and that’s about as close as we can get!

    • Anonymous says:

      We are at 80%. What numbers are you using?

  26. Anonymous says:

    So, will a positive on a day 10 LFT be counted as a traveler or a local transmission?

    • Anonymous says:

      Good question since chances are they caught covid here.

      • Anonymous says:

        Especially since it’s actually day 13 or 14, given the negative PCR 72 hours prior to travel.

    • Anonymous says:

      Good question. I assume now will all be considered a local transmission as there is no way of knowing whether the person was infected prior to arriving in Cayman but subsequent to their 72 hour PCR test, or they were infected while in Cayman.

      The distinction doesnt really matter anymore with quarantine gone.

    • Anonymous says:

      It makes no difference. Makes no sense having different categories for 10 LFT’s

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