Cayman’s COVID-19 case tally passes 8,000
(CNS): Just 14 weeks after the first community outbreak of COVID-19 in Cayman this year, the number of cases recorded to date had passed 8,000. As of 8am Tuesday, Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee reported another 47 positive cases of SARS-CoV-2, including two in travellers, from 1,027 PCR tests, bringing the national tally since the virus arrived here in March 2020 to 8,007, with over 7,200 of those cases being recorded in the last three months.
Nine people who were positive with the virus have died in the Cayman Islands, seven of them in the last month. The community outbreak which appeared to begin in North Side in early September has raged through the community, infecting more than 11% of the estimated population.
However, the percentage of positive cases in relation to the tests carried out each day has been falling from a high of 15% earlier this month to 4% yesterday and 4.5% today, indicating that the spread is slowing down.
There are currently 3,448 active cases of the virus, with 14 of those infected individuals still admitted to hospital. As of 8am Tuesday, for the second day there were no active cases in the Sister Islands.
As the community outbreak appears to have reached its peak, concern now turns to the possibility that the Omicron variant could pose a new threat despite the country’s high vaccination rate. However, Israeli researchers said on Saturday that a three-dose course of the Pfizer vaccine provided significant protection against the new variant, a finding that agrees with the manufacturer’s.
Government has rolled out a tighter testing window for travellers, which takes effect on Friday and will require people arriving in Cayman to have had a negative COVID-19 test that is no more than a day old, in an effort to keep the new variant at bay. To date Cayman has not yet identified a case of the Omicron strain.
Premier Wayne Panton said, “As COVID-19 continues to evolve, the Cayman Islands Government remains vigilant to ensure our health and safety regulations are best suited to protect our citizens, residents, and visitors.”
He continued, “All travellers must stay familiar with the requirements for leaving the country as well as for entering the country you are visiting. It is very important that returning residents understand that these regulations apply to us as well so that we are doing our part in protecting our loved ones and the greater community when we return home.”
Panton urged people to continue with good hygiene and safety practices, to take care of their own health and well-being, and above all to get vaccinated, including getting booster shots.
“It is the personal responsibility of each and every one of us to take this seriously, to remain informed by reliable sources, and to practice the best safety measures available to us no matter where we are,” he added.
The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that Omicron was spreading at a rate not seen with previous variants and that 77 countries have now reported cases of Omicron.
“The reality is that Omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn’t been detected yet,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a media briefing in Geneva. “Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems,” he said.
He added that “vaccines alone will not get any country out of this crisis” and urged countries to prevent the spread of Omicron with masks, social distancing, ventilation and hygiene.
Here in Cayman, where over 80% of the population has had two doses, the vaccination figures remain unchanged since yesterday, as the clinics were closed Monday.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
So now we have a case of Omicron detected in a traveler. With the borders open it is inevitable that Cayman will follow the UK and other countries with an Omicron wave. Today’s news from the UK is not good –
“Covid cases in the UK reached record levels, with 78,610 new cases reported on Wednesday, as the Omicron variant continues its rapid spread. The caseload came as Dr Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UK Health and Security Agency, told the Commons transport committee that Omicron was “probably the most significant threat we’ve had since the start of the pandemic” and that the data expected on growth rates over the next few days “will be quite staggering compared to the rate of growth that we’ve seen in cases for previous variants”.
Why Are Humans Always So Sick?
Updated. First posted 12 years ago
https://www.livescience.com/amp/3537-humans-sick.html
Why do asymptomatic COVID-19 cases even happen?
Health officials are concerned about why some people who test positive for the coronavirus never feel sick. Could it be the luck of genetics? The blessings of youth? Or something else?
“ The facts of COVID-19 include this disturbing reality: We have little idea who among us is spreading the disease… Researchers are racing to understand the biology of these sneaky cases and to develop models that predict how they might be spreading COVID-19.”
https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/science/article/why-do-asymptomatic-coronavirus-cases-even-happen-cvd
It’s like the world has never heard of healthy carriers before …
Just made up garbage to suit your ends.
Almost all transmission is fueled by people not masking properly, keeping track of things they are touching, or staying 6ft apart. There are ICUs and ERs all over the world with very low staff infection rates, even within COVID units, because they understand the mechanisms of aerosol transmission and mitigate those risks.
It has nothing to do with what people touch. This virus is spread through the air only. The idea that it spreads on surfaces has been debunked. Yet for some reason we still have to have our hands sprayed every time we walk into a supermarket – for no reason!
smh, the virus is carried in the air by tiny water droplets.
The virus can survive on surfaces depending on the surface and environmental conditions for over a couple of days.
All proved in actual studies, not by someone on youtube wearing a lab coat that you trust more, lol
Absolutely vital that we find those asymptomatic people and give them their fair share of persecution and misery.
⚡️NEWS
29 October 2021
The search for people who never get COVID.
An international team of researchers wants to find people who are genetically resistant to SARS-CoV-2, in the hope of developing new drugs and treatments.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02978-6
Why Are Humans Always So Sick?
https://www.livescience.com/amp/3537-humans-sick.html
CDC investigational study on Omicron. 80% were fully vaccinated 32% also received the booster.
No deaths in any cohort, vaccinated, boosted or unvaccinated.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7050e1.htm?s_cid=mm7050e1_w
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/14/us/cornell-university-covid-cases/index.html
3.5% of students (fully vaccinated and some boosted) got covid within 1 week. Before you start taking comfort in their “mild” symptoms ask yourself whether you’re 18-22 years old and in top physical shape.
What is the point of your comment?
I have a number of friends from Cornell. I cannot state that they were all in top physical shape. But you got the age range right!
Cayman let’s try not to have a second wave..Please get vaccinated and if you are already vaccinated, please get your boosters.
Omicron is on its way and possibly already here. We know it spreads like wildfire. Remember even if you have had coivid and recovered, you can catch it again and leave you with horrible long covid side effects and worse case could possibly kill you or one of your loved ones.
Please Cayman, do this for your family, your loved ones, your co-workers and yes your children. Even if they are better at surviving this, having you out of their lives or having to watch you go through the trauma of hospitalization is a terrible thing to put them through.
Vaccinated still get Omicron and spread it. They may enjoy a shorter journey and better survival odds, but the popular myth that it sterilizes on contact is false. To stop spread, and avoid new vaccine-evading variant mutations, we either need daily negative LFT for everyone going out in public ($4 ticket), or masking and 6 feet of personal clearance space between people moving around…until this is all over. Presuming everyone could be a carrier is what “living with” should really look like.
There’s always a positive. But Pfizer, Moderna and Merrk.
While you say “However, the percentage of positive cases in relation to the tests carried out each day has been falling from a high of 15% earlier this month to 4% yesterday and 4.5% today, indicating that the spread is slowing down.” another explanation is that more healthy people are scared about Omicron news and getting tested, just in case, and are testing negative. So you cannot actually conclude the spread is slowing down.
Healthy people typically don’t test themselves unless they have to. The “I don’t feel so goods” drive most of non-required (ie school work travel) community positive discovery tally. For each of those, there are dozens that don’t bother because they don’t feel sick enough, or know what it’ll say and refuse the burden of self isolation.
Source please! This makes zero sense.
Alden’s closed border and zero Covid policy on the bottom of the Trench…
Early data from Europe indicates Omicron infects double vaccinated at over 3x the rate of unvaccinated. Have fun dealing with the consequences of that…
Once again the truth on the falling numbers is that people aren’t reporting positives to avoid Christmas quarantine.
No right minded vaccinated person would report a positive lateral flow test, ever.
Source?
Source – His/her butt hole?
CDC
About eight out of 10 people who have caught the Omicron variant of COVID-19 were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
This will happen if 8 of 10 are vaccinated and it proves no effect of vaccination. It doesnt mean vaccinated are more likely to get omicron.
You need to learn comprehension, because the post doesn’t say that. You read something that simply wasn’t there.
there are more double vaccinated people than unvaccinated.
Example if 1 person in 100 is not vaccinated and 99 have been double vaxed.
Then if 80 people get infected, the 1 unvaxed, and 79 of 99 vaxed.
Wow, look at that you are 79 times more likely to be infected if vaxed!
see how it works, lol
Wax on, wax off…
Do your own research
Q has entered the chat.
The poster suggests you use your own intelligence and wisdom to research a matter that is health critical and you respond with a slur?
The only losers in this exchange are you and the idiots that would listen to you.
Wrong.
You obviously have serious reading comprehension problems.
Several European countries have disclosed the number of Omicron cases with breakdown by vaccination status. Compare that to vaccine coverage to get the shocker. The boosted have slightly lower infection rates than unvaccinated.
Why do you think this panic by governments to boost the double vaxxed?!
So idiotic
The number of vaccinated, outnumber the unvaccinated by 4 times.
The unvaccinated are act greater risk of infection and death, there is just less of them around now.
They also are at risk of be reinfected by Omicron or have both Delta and Omicron at the same time.
If you also notice there are 4 times more vaccinated people in car crashes as unvaxed.
Does that mean the vaccine make you more likely to be in a crash?
No ,its just as they are 4 times more people who are vaxed.
See how it works?
If it crowds out Alpha, Beta, Delta as is as mild as initial reports indicate is indeed good news!
The evidence coming out of S Africa is that it does not crowd out earlier variants and in fact people are being hospitalized who have Delta and Omicron at the same time.
Yep, this should silence the vaxaholics for a while.
Are you really so stupid or just playing a stupid person on CNS?
Joker
Bullshit
Where is this so called “early data”?
Usual antivax utter rubbish..but if it makes you feel better about yourself…
@6:11 What absolute rubbish!!..when you say foolishness and spread disinformation like this, at least try to have something to back it up even it’s just FOX NEWS.
Fox news doesn’t control cdc website
Nah, check with Bobby Kennedy Jr., not Fox.
Right, but less deadly, thankfully.
Panic!!! Everyone panic! Lets lose our heads!! Lemmings are we. Lets all jump off a cliff in unison! Give it a break 6:11…
Cite your source. Seems highly unlikely that vaccination would make you more susceptible than someone who has had no vaccination – you are basically suggesting the vaccination makes you more likely to catch it. Could believe that the absolute numbers of infected vaccinated people are 3 x those of the unvaccinated because of the far higher numbers of vaccinated people, but that’s an entirely different point.
It already happened with Delta if your second shot was over 6 months ago. Higher infection rates than among unvaxxed. There is tons of data on that.
Then show it
You are missing the point. Omicron is vaccine resistant, that is what the data is showing. In my experience vaccinated people generally think they are invincible and don’t pay attention to hygiene and social distancing as they should Vaccinated should still go about their business like they are not vaccinated.
It’s also got symptoms similar to the common cold. It’s a blessing and likely signals the end of covid, if it becomes the dominant strain.
Thats absolutely incorrect. But nice try.
Crap
Source? I assume that once again a math lesson is necessary
Transmissibility is at least 3x Delta for everyone, but probably 4x in unvaccinated who stand to weather a different ride and outcome than vaxed, who have had an immunity head start, all other factors being equal.