491 new COVID cases recorded over NY weekend
(CNS): As of midnight Tuesday morning, an additional 429 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Cayman, having picked up the virus in the community, with many of the new cases suspected to be the Omicron variant. There were also 62 positive cases of the virus among travellers, some of whom have had to extend their stay in Cayman as a result.
Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Autilia Newton reported a total of 491 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 from 1,674 PCR tests carried out since New Year’s Eve, as well as from lateral flow tests (LFTs). Once again, government was unable to supply the number of active cases, but officials said 89 cases of the Omicron variant have been confirmed while another 476 probable cases have been recorded.
Of those currently infected with the virus, six are in hospital, including three recent admissions, and eleven are in the Sister Islands, where there are 22 active cases and a total of 149 cases to date. The total number of cases recorded in the Cayman Islands since the start of the pandemic is now 9,509.
This latest strain of the virus, although apparently less virulent, continues to spread rapidly around the world. In the UK 218,724 people had a confirmed positive test result on 4 January, while in the US officials reported well over one million positive results for the virus across the country yesterday.
Meanwhile, as visitors form overseas are forced to remain in Cayman because they had tested positive for the virus during their stay, a number of Caymanian and resident families are stuck overseas, having picked up the virus during vacations and are now prevented from returning home.
According to the latest figures, vaccine numbers inched up a little over the holidays, as 58,853 people (83% of the estimated population of 71,106) have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 57,259 (80%) have had two shots.
Only around a quarter of people have now also had a booster shot, despite the warnings that this third dose is essential for beating the Omicron variant.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
Just recovered from Omicron in 2.5 days. It’s a sort throat and headache. Took some DayQuil. Look at the South Africa cases vs deaths, it’s very mild.
Anyone who thinks these draconian restrictions are justified must somehow benefitting from them eg. receiving stipends.
Now say hello to DeltaCron. All the best of both worlds.
Just when you thought you were safe.
I’m flying back to cayman from London this weekend, first time off island in 2.5 years, have been in 3 European countries, multiple flights… shopped down Oxford street on Christmas Eve, been out for drinks and dinner every night. Had 9 pcr tests for pre and post arrival, cost me over 1500 cayman dollars for the tests alone, and all negative so far. Why? Because I follow basic rules. Makes a mockery of the cayman case rate. It’s not hard if you try (and are boosted).
Your nice travel bio just demonstrates why testing needs to be done away with. If you are triple vaccinated, aren’t Sick and show no key symptoms of Covid , the current testing requirement to travel here and require a PCR is now not sustainable. Just do a LFT on arrival and days 5 to 10 . Many countries are doing away with the 24 hour pre flight PCR as I write. Cayman will not progress until some changes are made. No sensible person would travel under the current regime of endless requirements and permissions.
👍🛬 Glad you enjoyed your time off island!
Have we been conditioned to test for COVID-19, even when healthy?
https://www.winknews.com/2022/01/05/have-we-been-conditioned-to-test-for-covid-19/
France allows some COVID-19-infected medics to keep working
https://www.winknews.com/2022/01/05/france-allows-some-covid-19-infected-medics-to-keep-working/
They also eat frogs and snails.
You don’t like escargot? Served in many good cayman restaurants. And caymanians eat turtles
5:22, And they taste magnificent. They certainly beat Caymanian turtle stew.
Calm down about the kids. Remember Sweden? The country that implemented NO restrictions when COVID first exploded in 2020?
In Sweden there are approximately 2 million students. None wore masks, no separation mandate in classrooms. Some got covid but recovered quickly as children do and NONE died. Search The New England Journal of Medicine article – “Open Schools, Covid-19, and Child and Teacher Morbidity in Sweden”.
3:04, Yes, the Chief Medical Officer was fired a year ago in Sweden as his prescription for Sweden in 2020 did not work.
I have a close relative in isolation and all I can say is that it’s completely chaotic with 3 different entities involved (travel Cayman, travel support and public health) and so many different rules it makes your head spin including different isolation periods for different variants. There are so many tests being run that the results are taking a long time to report back to people. The whole thing is a complete mess and needs someone senior to step in and simplify it.
4 weeks ago I could understand why we would treat Omicron differently to Delta. Now there is absolutely no reason to and they need to move a lot more quickly to change things.
It appears as if a lot of cases are going completely unreported because people do not want to get involved with public health and the bureaucratic way they are approaching it and I can understand why. It’s easy for the authorities to say what should happen in an ideal world but it is now clear the civil service are not capable of delivering this in a practical way. Otherwise people will just do their own thing and this is what is happening right now.
It’s a joke. We have one person who tested positive in our house and we’re told 4 of us have to quarantine 14 days while they wait 10 days to find out if it is omicron. Our neighbor has 3 people positive and 1 not and they are free to go if they have daily negative test. Also so many people not reporting lft results because the policy is so unclear. What an absolute embarrassment
The CIG has the wrong number of COVID positives on island due to the public fearing their quarantine measures. Why would someone report their LFT when they can just quarantine in PEACE for 10 days?
Cayman has created a hostile situation. It isn’t pleasant and locals know that.
Do you remember
“…these islands are sleepwalking into a catastrophe greater than anything in living memory, greater even than Ivan or the ’32 Storm. We are on the verge of a national crisis …” (CNS 16/12/2021)
I wonder if the person who wrote this got help.
I don’t believe we are sleepwalking into a catastrophe at this time. None of the data from other countries would support this where cases go up but hospital cases and deaths do not rise significantly. This is very different to the Delta wave we saw where there was a direct connection.
This is about the Civil Service not being able to plan or manage this properly. What they want is zero risk or at least very very low risk but the nonsense bureaucracy they have created around this is increasingly at odds with a population who aren’t as fearful of Covid as they were. Cayman is a small country and should be moving quickly to adapt and change as needed. The irony is that the UK is moving much more quickly on Omicron than Cayman is and it has a population of 60 million!
Yes. There are too many parties involved and they do not relay information between them at all or well. Logistical nightmare.
It is unexplainable to me why Public Health sent my negative PCR test on day 15, and further called me with these results to only say “you are negative and good BUT you need to wait for Travel Cayman for further exiting”. Travel Cayman/ Support did NOT contact me and I waited an additional 1-2 hours by calling numerous people to get “officially” released even though I had my negative PCR. They didn’t seem to know what to do. I was sitting with my negative PCR test on day 15 and still dealing with admin, and for what purpose?
Further to the craziness after being released –
Travel Cayman/ Support will continuously call you regarding their wristband and phone. They told me it would be picked up but no one picked it up for over a week, and I had multiple calls from them asking if it had been picked up or not, and if they can still come.
They even called me to tell me to charge my phone 2-3 days after THEY had released me and they had no record of this.
🤯Unbelievable! Oh, wait…This is how they do things in Cayman.
#worldclass.
Well at least it is not De Santis’s Florida where they lost and let expire one million tests last month.
You think you have problems in Cayman but we have bigger problems in Florida with our in denial Governor.
Has anyone vaccinated without old age and serious health conditions died from Covid in cayman? No. So why are we still having all this testing rules? You cannot impose restrictions on all for the idiots that won’t get vaccinated.
The restrictions are not just because of unvaccinated you fool. Have you also considered that the low death rate might be due to the restrictions?
The unvaccinated minority are making life hell for the vaccinated majority in the Cayman Islands.
Mandatory vaccinations NOW for all health care workers and CIG workers or let them sit at home with no pay. The unvaccinated need to start feeling some pain and inconveniences for putting the rest of us through this nonsense.
We should ignore whatever happens on a New York weekend. Signed Covid denier.
It is time for government to stop making Covid-related decisions based on science and public health criteria. Government should hand over all Covid decision making to CITA and people who stand to profit from ignoring Covid.
The government is already ignoring science and public health advice.
The medical advice to government has now for some time been to scrap exit PCR tests for those in quarantine, and just move to a fixed 10 day isolation.
Cabinet has so far refused to follow this advice because it would go down badly with ignorant voters.
Ridiculous rubbish – publish your evidence.
In truth, the advice provided to government does not go nearly far enough. Time to move on.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59876063
CDC good enough?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10370121/CDC-backs-previous-advice-halve-isolations-10-five-days-says-no-test-needed.html
Its published you fool! Look around the world and see.
PCR can show positive for 3 months or more. No country with any brains does exit PCR testing.
What medical advice?? Your interpretation of Dr. Youtube??
Wow – the CITA-bots are active today! Question – were the ones used to promote the proposed cruise port repurposed or did new bots have to be acquired?
Why is everyone that disagrees with you a “bot” – maybe stop for a second and think about the possibility that if your comment has more dislikes than likes it means not everyone agrees with your opinions? It doesn’t mean that they’re correct.
I know plenty of people who dislike or disagree with some or all of government’s policies on covid restrictions. And none of them have anything to do with the tourism industry.
Breaking BBC news:
‘ The PM confirms that pre-departure travel Covid tests to enter England from overseas will be scrapped from 04:00 on Friday.
He also says he is lifting the requirement to self-isolate on arrival in England until receiving a negative PCR test result.
Instead people can take a lateral flow test on day two – and if it’s positive a further PCR test will be needed to identify any new variants, plus isolation as normal.’
When will cayman for the same and end these pointless travel tests?
Profit over people. Today’s UK government report on Covid (ONS) shows that 334 died yesterday with Covid as a contributing factor. The drop restrictions crowd no doubt hold up this fact as proving conclusively that Covid is harmless and we should remove all public health measures associated with Covid.
Actually 334 people didn’t die yesterday. There was a backlog of reporting from 1st to 4th January. The fact remains that we are not seeing any significant increase in the mortality rate, even though the case numbers are very high. This isn’t profit over people.
While there’s evidence omicron is resulting in about half as many deaths as the delta variant, the sheer number of new infections means deaths will continue to rise. This is how math and science works.
It’s nowhere even close to half. It’s estimated to result in 1/4 the hospitalizations and of that 1/3 the deaths. We’re talking death rate that could be 1/10 of Delta or something similar or even less lethal than the flu. But a ton more infectious.
Silly comment. You can’t close the world to save the unvaccinated. They had a choice. 99 per cent of uk ICU admissions are unvaccinated, that so their fault.
Decisions have been made by rational people for too long. It is time for Covid deniers and other idiots to have their chance to have control. What is the worst that could happen?
Don’t look up.
The movie sucks, but the slogan is created.
It seems that the Covid deniers have been in discussions with the Omicron variant and both have agreed that no mention should be made of the effects of ‘long Covid’ in people who survive Omicron.
Given that we are all inevitably going to catch it at some stage, what’s your point?
I hear you. We are all going to die some day. Might as well get it over with.
Total rubbish. We might all be exposed to it, but many will avoid it as in every other pandemic.
Survive Omicron lol. Drama queen
Truth hurts it seems.
Jesus… I guess you are one of the ‘cabal’ posting nutters
Children have much narrower upper airways than adults and therefore diseases that cause inflammation and further narrowing of children’s airway’s, like Omicron, may result in higher hospitalisation rates. As reported this morning:
“Covid-19 hospitalizations among children in the US are soaring, fueled by the Omicron variant and the holidays, and adding pressure to already-strained health systems and schools.
An average of 672 children were being hospitalized every day in the US, as of 2 January – more than double the average just a week before. And the rate is rapidly increasing.”
Per the New York Times:
But even as experts expressed concern about a marked jump in hospitalizations — an increase more than double that among adults — doctors and researchers said they were not seeing evidence that Omicron was more threatening to children.
In fact, preliminary data suggests that compared with the Delta variant, Omicron appears to be causing milder illness in children, similar to early findings for adults.
“I think the important story to tell here is that severity is way down and the risk for significant severe disease seems to be lower,” said Dr. David Rubin, a researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Instead, much of the rise in pediatric admissions results from the sheer number of children who are becoming infected with both Delta and the more contagious Omicron variant, he and other experts said, as well as low vaccination rates among children over age 5.
Younger children do not yet qualify for vaccination, and only those age 16 and older qualify for booster shots, which offer the most effective shield against infection and hospitalization.”
STOP WITH THE PANIC AND FEAR MONGERING. Seriously.
your own quoted post states that children hospitalization rates have doubled compared to adults.
and then “Instead, much of the rise in pediatric admissions results from the sheer number of children who are becoming infected with both Delta and the more contagious Omicron variant, he and other experts said”
So Omicron is leading to the increased hospitalisations of children. As catching Omicron while infected with Delta, is still the effect of Omicron.
And why do you panic when people just post fats you then agree with.
The post is not about panicking but being aware of the increased risk.
Do you complain when the NHC tracks a hurricane a day out and heading our way? do you tell them to “STOP WITH THE PANIC AND FEAR MONGERING. Seriously”?
Some people are so in denial, like you, they even refuse to accept COVID is real, even as they are dieing in hospital from it.
The big time mainstream media in the US is NOT a trustworthy source of unbiased reporting, as corporations own them. The New York Times is one of the worst offenders. How soon we forget that they sold the lies of WMD to the public to gain support for the fraudulent wars against Iraq.
how soon you forget it was the US lawmakers and a Republican White House, that distributed those WMD lies to the media in White House press releases that the Media then published.
Talk about shooting the messenger.
It’s very clear after the last 3 Republican presidents that Republicans are definitely NOT a trustworthy source of unbiased reporting, as corporations own them.
Please stop posting facts. All they do is confuse and make uncomfortable the stupid and ignorant.
While this is true in general, this particular truth does not apply to covid deniers and their offspring.
Why are we still testing? What’s the point…
The 2021-2022 flu vaccine does not match the main circulating strain of flu, but Big Pharma wants you to take it anyway.
and cayman was afraid of a cruise ship coming here…laughable.
for the anti-cruise brigade…..how has covid come to our shores???
No one wants cruise ships anyways so there’s that!
Why are tourist being tested day 2, 5 and 10 when everyone on the island has the same chance of catching Omnicron. As mentioned previously, people can be contagious 2 days before symptoms.
Agree. Time to do away with pre departure / arrival PCR, and the day 2 5 10 lft. Let the boosted triple vaxed travel freely as they’re not gong to take up hospital beds. Lock down the unvaxed with alphabet days for shops and no entrance to bars, cinema etc.
Yeh because that worked so well in New York.
Also – they could be negative on Day Two, catch it on day two or three from a hotel/restaurant/grocery store/man or woman on the street and test positive on Day Five. How do we know if the travellers are really bringing it in – or are they catching it in the community? It makes no sense to separate the numbers anymore.
OMG. “Cases” don’t matter. This is like reporting everyone who gets a cold every year. Enough is enough. Stop all the testing (unless symptomatic). Stop with exit PCR tests. Stop with quarantine of unvaccinated children. Makes ZERO sense as we are not living in COVID elimination anymore. Bigger chance of getting it walking around Cayman from a non-traveler. It’s like we’ve learned nothing since March 2020.
I am guessing from your post that you are one of the ‘we’ who have learned nothing relevant to the current situation.
Why is the government still pursuing policies aimed at keeping the virus out of the islands, when it is already endemic here?
Maybe Omicron, since pretty much everyone has it, has been living quietly in nasal passages of humans for millennia? Just because the test detects it doesn’t automatically mean it is dangerous. Just a thought.
Biologists estimate that 380 trillion viruses are living on and inside your body right now—10 times the number of bacteria. Some can cause illness, but many simply coexist with you. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/viruses-can-help-us-as-well-as-harm-us/
I am reminded of the adage – ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’.
Standby for the next deadlier variant you mean and the local unvaccinated dummies and our economic refugees constantly whining about the place being closed ! If you don’t like the draconian measures here please go back to your wonderful homeland where you can live your life freely and with healthy lifestyles and healthcare options to die for.
“… despite the warnings that this third dose is essential for beating the Omicron variant..”
Whose warnings?
In a normal person, immune system clears Omicron in about a week, THEY say.
6:39
So you are willing to bet your life on that. I am not. Triple vaccinated.
90% of persons in hospital are unvaccinated
Its time for Government to update the mandatory isolation policy for the omicron variant. We now know that omicron is more contagious, but doesn’t make people as sick as Delta and other earlier variants. There is no science in requiring a longer isolation period for omicron before an exit test is allowed. The 14 day mandatory isolation for fully vaccinated persons is nonsensical and makes the current Cayman administration appear disconnected and incompetent.
Yes both Omicron and Delta are circulating and arriving with travelers so would the Omicron and Delta variants please announce their presence in large fluorescent print on the foreheads of infected people so that we can easily apply different isolation periods. Thank you to the virus in advance.
Well yes, but they ARE disconnected and incompetent
How are they determining these cases are probable Omicron? Just another excuse to lock people up and their families who are negative. One rule for Delta and another for Omicron. Stopping tourists leaving and residents returning is absolutely crazy.
If they could find there asses you might say heads up their asses but we know this group is pretty thick. Let’s just quarantine everyone and hand out food stamps. Omni is less than the flu, it’s crazy what’s going on.
As CIG continues to follow “the science” perhaps they can explain the current position on this.
There are a huge number of Caymanian and resident families stuck overseas because one or more of their party have covid and are not allowed to fly home until they have a medical certificate confirming that they’re negative. I know of a least half a dozen personal friends and colleagues in this position. The ones with children, all of which have covid, are currently in isolation in various places around the world waiting, with unknown timelines, to get a negative test in order to fly back to cayman. When they get back after this ordeal (granted everyone knew the risk of this happening) they’re welcomed home with a further 15 days of enforced quarantine because one or more of their party – the children – are unvaccinated. Despite the fact that they have all had covid and recovered from it and have the test results to prove it.
I, on the other hand, am free to go about my business anywhere on island and bump into one of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of positive people out and about in the community who are either positive and not declaring it in order to stay out of the incompetent system out in place by public health or positive and currently unaware of it. If a member of my household actually tests positive I’m still free to go out as long as I have a negative lft. If Cayman was still in its summer 2020 bubble then this arrival quarantine and testing regime might be defendable but given how much covid had already rippled through the community and the inequitable application of the law due to the fact that someone has been on a plane it now smacks of massive overreach.
The idea that all and sundry could be subjected to two weeks house arrest in order to prevent the unpreventable spread of a virus which currently has a grand total of five people hospitalised was ridiculous last summer. Given the current state of infection around the world and in cayman it’s farcical.
10:25. You nailed it. I
Agreed
Lol Cayman is the most farcical place I’ve lived in my life full stop on practically every level. 😂😂
welcome to wonderland.
To the 7 people (at this time) who disliked the above comment, please be comforted to know there are 6 other people as completely ignorant as you are.
Happy new year!
hospitilisations is the only figure of note…and thankfully this number remains miniscule and falls within the range of icidence of seasonal flu.
While there’s evidence omicron is resulting in about half as many deaths as the delta variant, the sheer number of new infections means deaths will continue to rise. This is how math and science works.
Thank you!
look at the south africa death rate, almost zero.
SA have had four intense waves – including an earlier geo-specific Beta wave that we never got – against a median age of 27, some 3.4mln cases and 91k resolved via death = 2.7% dead. For comps, global average stands at 1.8% Actual full recovery rate stands at only 93%, so you can infer another 4.3% in long recovery and complication limbo.
This week, active cases have decreased 54% while deaths have increased 89% Since mortality stats have lagged new cases discoveries by 2-4 weeks, we should not be surprised to read SA is now posting biggest daily death figures since their Omicron outbreak began, which is actually what is happening.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/south-africa-covid-cases.html
look at the average age of safas
Sadly you lost most of those who could benefit from taking your point on board when you mentioned math and science.
this should be the final public advice on covid/omicron:
get vaxxed or risk losing social freedoms and risk getting seriously ill.
if old/sick/at risk….protect yourself as much as possible.
if you test positive ..isolate at home until asympotmatic.
everything else returns to normal.
there is nothing more to be done or said.
the testing/tracing cycle of nonsense achieves nothing with this level of communitiy transmission of this mild cold virus.
If you believe that this is a mild cold virus why do you think it’s worth taking away people’s social freedoms? Should we also take away freedoms from people who don’t bother with the flu vaccine? That seems to have about the same level of effectiveness for a healthy person (i.e. some variable amount depending on the strain).
Standby for the “it’s a mild variant” gang
The science very definitely states that it is a much milder variant. If you are vaccinated you should be fine. However the draconian government restrictions may finish you off long before COVID.
Delta disappeared?! Awesome!
Omicron will dominate within the next two days, so for all intents and purposes it basically will, yes. You hear anything about OG COVID or the other strains much anymore?
yes it is …6 in hospital..one of the lowest numbers since september. sorry for to the bearer of facts.
Where have we heard this one before? Oh yeah, when Delta appeared.
And how bad has Delta really been when it was running wild for the last few months? It wasn’t fabulous but it was certainly manageable. A few people died which is quite sad.
People are so quick to forget that we put all these restrictions in place based on projections of something like 900 people dead in Cayman.
In the end, a few more people will die from Delta and Omicron.
When we look back at this, I think we will be able to say that maintaining the year-long bubble probably saved a number of lives.
Now that effective vaccines and treatments are available and the virus is endemic it’s time to move on.
People calling for 15 day quarantines and businesses to be closed are living in the past.
We need to move on now. People who want to live in their own personal bubbles are more than welcome to.
Those who are spiking the ball in the end zone shouting that we can just relax because the Omicron variant appears to cause milder illness and a smaller percentage of deaths may be prancing for victory prematurely. While it may be the case now that Omicron is not raging (yet) the latest news from the rest of the world is that after a little respite, hospitalisations are beginning to surge in many areas. While the acute phase of the Covid illness may be less severe, researchers and doctors are warning that the number of patients that will suffer with Long Covid is likely not going to be fewer nor the long Covid less severe. Omicron is so contagious that there will be a huge number of cases. Moreover, increased hospitalisations exact another lesser mentioned threat: While a smaller percentage of Omicron patients might up in the ICU, the increased number of patients in general wards will expose many more already ill people–and health care workers–to the virus. Thus Omicron has much potential for widespread human suffering and increased health care cost in regard to human resources, capacity and financial burden. As in all case with Covid, letting one’s guard now is the folly of the foolish. Better to be safe than sorry.
Why do you want covid to be so bad? Do you like restrictions on your personal freedoms? You should be happy that the variant is milder instead of trying to mock those who acknowledge the truth.
I swear people are addicted to the drama.
more likely a work-shy civil servant…hoping for more lockdowns and even less work than normal.
And?
Good job Premier/Gov ….. Way to keep the island safe.
So how about some info an the distribution of cases in the Sister Islands? How many on the Cayman Brac?, How many on Little Cayman?
Less stingy information would be nice … you know like full disclosure.
Agree with 9:11, I have been asking for separate numbers for Brac and Little, and don’t understand why that would be so hard to do. They have the numbers for each, why not report them, and stop the rumors.
Open the borders and remove all quarantine for children. this is nothing worse than a bad cold for the vaccinated responsible majority. Enough is enough.
More than 20,000 Americans in ICU with COVID-19, highest since September.
Time to open the borders and ease all restrictions! The Wakandan Cayman force field is activated!
US data on covid is completely unreliable. Look at Bermuda. Over 1,000 cases of Omicron and not a single severe case among either vaccinated or unvaccinated. It spreads wickedly, it spreads to everybody but it sure as h*ll is a lot less deadly.
France reports 271,686 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase on record
Australia reports 47,799 new coronavirus cases, by far the biggest one-day increase on record
India reports 37,379 new coronavirus cases, an increase of 488% from last week
Curious!
and…what is the level of hospitalisations????
Bermuda!
… despite 1,000,000 new cases per day. For double/triple vaxxed the vast majority will have only minor symptoms.
Apologies on disrupting the CITA and business driven narrative, but while there’s evidence omicron is resulting in about half as many deaths as the delta variant, the sheer number of new infections means deaths will continue to rise. #Math