Another major leap in Omicron cases reported
(CNS): There were 466 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 reported on Thursday evening, as the Omicron variant is causing another surge in COVID-19 infections. From the latest positive cases, 41 were in travellers and the rest were due to community transmission, including ten new cases in the Sister Islands.
According to the report from Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Autilla Newton, there are an estimated 3,372 active cases of the virus and the percentage of the Cayman Islands population who are reported to be COVID positive currently stands at 4.74%.
Nevertheless, hospitalisations remain stable, with just four patients admitted who are positive for the virus. One was a new admission and one patient was discharged.
The figures also reveal that while only 89 cases of the Omicron variant have actually been confirmed in the Cayman Islands, the number of additional probable cases of the variant had reached 802, as of 12:01am Thursday, 6 January.
The total number of cases recorded in the Cayman Islands since the start of the pandemic is now 10,186.
Meanwhile, the vaccination programme remains stalled, with little change in the number of either newly vaccinated individuals or people seeking booster shots. Currently, 58,939 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, 57,377 people have had two doses, while 17,681 have had the booster shot.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
Why is the HSA insisting on scaring the public? There are over 1,000 SUSPECTED cases of Omicron not CONFIRMED cases, confirmed cases are around 89.
They are not “scaring” the public: they are passing on information.
When PCR tests are first analysed, there is a visible difference between omicron and delta cases – omicron samples show a missing S-gene. Delta has an S-gene present. As the earlier alpha variant also had the S-gene dropout profile, the only way to be 100% sure that the test is definitely is omicron is to run full genomic sequencing, which takes time.
Omicron is becoming dominant worldwide or is already dominant, so the likelihood of tests with the missing S-gene profile being omicron is very high, that’s why they are suspected – but not fully confirmed until the final sequencing.
It’s useful to know whether delta is being outcompeted by omicron here, as it is elsewhere. The information is not intended to scare but to inform.
The article conveyed the numbers from HSA: “The figures also reveal that while only 89 cases of the Omicron variant have actually been confirmed in the Cayman Islands, the number of additional probable cases of the variant had reached 802, as of 12:01am Thursday, 6 January.”
So what exactly is your beef?
And on the floating petri dish front –
“An American company has suspended some of its cruise operations due to the rising number of Covid cases caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The Royal Caribbean Cruises has paused the sailings of three of its ships – Serenade of the Seas, Jewel of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas – while its Vision of the Seas ship will not return to cruising until 7 March, the cruise line said in a statement on Friday.
“We regret having to cancel our guests’ long-awaited vacations and appreciate their loyalty and understanding,” the company said, adding that these measures had been implemented “in an abundance of caution”.”
Great news, if you got your booster back at the beginning of November you are no longer fully vaccinated. And for those of you who received your booster in October, I’m afraid you are practically anti-vax at this point.
What are you waiting for? Better get back in line and shoot up.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-long-does-booster-protection-omicron-covid-last-study-2021-12?op=1
I’m triple vaxxed. Just tested positive Covid. Have had chills, a slight headache and body aches, congested, don’t feel terrible, but don’t feel great. More like a bad head cold with some body aches. Glad I am triple vaxxed. Wouldn’t want to feel worse. This is manageable.
Indeed, 6:41, a very timely reminder underscoring the need to ensure that people need to be pro-active in keeping their vax status up to date. It is silly not to keep up. The vaccine and boosters are free of cost, and according to our experience in the Cayman Islands they are safe and reliable. Moreover, local stats reveal that Covid serious morbidity and death is occurring in the non-vaxed at a rate that vastly exceeds the rate in fully vaxed persons. It is good for people to receive such reminders as the vaccines’ effectiveness wanes over time, thus the importance of keeping up with a prudent vax schedule.
We’re all going to get this! Stop the quarantines already!
Is this what you want to happen here?
January 8, 2022. More than 135,000 Americans hospitalized with COVID-19, highest since the pandemic began.
Once all the Civil Servants have concluded their extra two weeks of vacation, the quarantine restrictions will be amended.
$1,500,000 paid their wages today
Guessing PACT is on a 2 week vacation as well. Wayne, Kenneth, Bueller, HR lady…. Anyone out there.
Omicron Kenny reach back from Blighty yet?
Trust the science we are told. Follow the science we are told. Well Dr. Fauci and the NIH are either incompetent or worse. According to Dr. Marty Makary, a medical doctor and researcher at Johns Hopkins, the NIH funded “257 grants on social disparities” related to COVID-19 “but only four” on the coronavirus’s spread.
So we don’t know how the bloody thing really spreads because they won’t fund the research instead choosing to be good little woke social justice warriors. This is a truly sickening indictment that says screw human life, lets create more divisiveness.
Marky Malarky is one of the best. This is what he said one year ago, along with other pearls of wisdom.
My prediction that Covid-19 will be mostly gone by April is based on laboratory data, mathematical data, published literature and conversations with experts.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/well-have-herd-immunity-by-april-11613669731
And why won’t they allow therapeutics? Why block meds that work?
Weed and pain relief.
no one gives a shit anymore. move on.
Let us live.
And let us die since people like you don’t give a shit.
this to be addressed with a mental health professional
You die if you want, the rest of us were smart enough to get vaccinated.
Vaccinated or not, the virus is spreading rapidly in most countries. The overconfidence of some vaccinated people that are abandoning proven safety measures to “get back to it” are contributing to the spread.
Putting aside the vacuum of humanity it takes to believe that and to declare it aloud, the societal acceptance of a class who deserves death means that everyone in that society is in danger.
3 vaccines and people are still worried about dying, against a variant even unvaxxed have mild symptoms from, nearly 3 years later? So genius commenter…We supposed to keep this up forever because you’re afraid?
“nearly 3 years later”? You must be suffering long Covid side effects, or very poor at math, or both.
This from a doctor in the US today.
“Almost half of my admits in the past day have been for either deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism related to COVID or post-COVID. “
How many were vaccinated?
How many had underlying health issues and/or were obese?
You go right ahead! The rest of us will live.
11:44, I am having a very hard time finding sympathy for those who are still not vaccinated.
Must be perfectly honest, I don’t give a shit if you die and you are not vaccinated. You all had your chance.
If you really think this way, I imagine you’re also a jerk on the roadways
Putting aside the vacuum of humanity it takes to believe that and to declare it aloud, the societal acceptance of a class who deserves death means that everyone in that society is in danger
Hide like a coward if you want but don’t stop us living our lives. We can rationally assess risk.
Exactly – people just don’t seem to realise that we were immortal before Covid. And all those predictions about a huge death toll like Bermuda, all turned out to be entirely accurate. Let’s just keep panicking and hiding. It’s surely the way forward.
We are “Learning to live with Covid” because idiots like you couldn’t stay home or be sanitary.
If you want to live in a bubble and stay home go right ahead.
“How about a two week lockdown?”
“No thank you. I’ll take two years of constant disruptions and case surges”
Except those countries that did apply a lockdown just get the surges when they stop anyway. So a bit of a false comparison.
Nothing to see here. It’s just a cold.
An ensemble forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Wednesday predicts that more than 84,000 people could die of Covid-19 over the next four weeks, and cautions “current forecasts may not fully account for the emergence and rapid spread of the Omicron variant or changes in reporting during the holidays.”
The forecast could mean an average of 3,526 Covid-19 deaths per day, up from a current average of 1,251 each day, based on data from Johns Hopkins University.
Is the “Common Cold” Our Greatest Ally in the Battle Against SARS-CoV-2?
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2020.605334/full
Nothing like referencing pre-vaccine stories from 2020.
Pre-vaccine “stories” were REAL science, well sort of.
🤣
2.6 million new coronavirus cases worldwide, the biggest one-day increase on record, according to WHO. 8,168 new deaths.
Switzerland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, India, Italy, Sweden, Israel, France and of course the US are setting daily records of Covid infections.
Using reason, more infections create more hospitalizations and more deaths. Our goal should be to do whatever is necessary to attempt to slow the spread here as soon as possible.
“While omicron does appear to be less severe compared to delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorized as mild,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the same briefing in Geneva.
“Just like previous variants, omicron is hospitalizing people and it is killing people.”
at this point we’re close to having wild animals kill more people a year than omicron.
Typical uneducated moronish comment – just one preventable death is too many. Would like to hear this cretin’s comment if one of the Covid variants killed his wife, one of his children, or indeed any member of his family.
One preventable death is too many, but at what cost to the economy or free choice? By that measure we should prevent children from drinking sodas or eating junk food, and completely ban tobacco and alcohol. All of which lead to far more preventable deaths than Covid.
Absolutely right – lets reduce preventable deaths by making vaccination compulsory. Oh, your absolute standard of eliminating all preventable deaths somehow not quite as absolute, eh?
Definitely milder than mild for everyone I know that has had it.
Says the guy on the Chinese payroll.
Lots of cases but minimal issues…..best case scenario for herd immunity! Pretty soon everyone in Cayman will have had it and/or be vaccinated. Maybe, just maybe, government will start to let us live normal lives again!
Herd immunity is a fable that doesn’t exist with Coronavirus.
please provide your empirical data for this, together with where you got your PhD in virology or immunology. I’d love to read your study on this assertion. Could IU use it in a research project I am undertaking?
Go get ya boosters people!
No reason not to be at 50%+ of the population boosted by now.
No incentive for most, until US, UK, Canada etc start making this a requirement for travel.
Still wont be an incentive for most, only for those that travel.
imagine if the headline was:
‘hospitalisations remain very low from covid’
I had to wait an hour for my booster on Tuesday so surprised to read the vaccination program is “stalled”.
But I guess the wait time is because there are now only two people administering vaccines.
Booster is being administered alphabetically now, just to make life that bit more difficult.
Dose 1&2 are being given to whoever shows up.
All of this should have been expected based on the current (or lack there of) suppression measures put in place by the government. That is not to say that the decisions that have been made by the government are right or wrong. It seems that the government has simply decided to place the economic interests of local and international business entities ahead of any benefits that could be gained by implementing more restrictive suppression measures. Again, this might or might not be best approach based on our high vaccination levels and the relatively small number of people experiencing more serious symptoms requiring hospitalization.
Thanks for the “neutral” analysis. You’re not saying it’s right or wrong but you’re saying it puts the interests of “business entities” against “benefits”. I’m not sure what those benefits are. Would it slow the spread? Sure. But unless you go to lockdowns, all these people are going to get it eventually anyway.
Given that elimination is not possible, I will go out on a limb and say that it is the right decision. “Business interests” isn’t some evil monolithic power, it’s how people pay their bills. It’s how the government gets revenue and how the civil service gets paid and how ordinary people get “benefits”.
There are 4 people in the hospital. That may change. If it starts to trend up then further restrictions may be warranted.
“Given that elimination is not possible”…wrong, it is, and it’s actually really easy to do. All non-essential stay home and watch Tiger King and we test those others circulating like crazy. This tiny territory managed it perfectly well last year. If the economy leaders of the planet took 4-5 weeks to coordinate a reasonable minimal effort, we’d not only return to normal life, but have a great year of normalised business prosperity and freedom ahead. Instead, we are told to squint, take drugs that kinda still work for now, and force-digest that this is going to be the new normal. I don’t accept that. Plugging the dam with chewing gum does not fix the dam or return us to normal life.
And in 4-5 weeks we start the process over again. Great idea genius.
Absolutely delusional. Australia and NZ tried that and failed. Scotland and Wales are trying less severe, but none the less restrictive regulation, and that has failed.
No country, including China, which has some of the most draconian regulations for lockdown hasn’t achieved the eradication of the virus.
The only country in Europe which has managed to keep deaths low is Sweden, and they haven’t locked down at all.
After refusing to lockdown over Christmas and the NY, despite dire warnings from ‘experts’ of mass mortality, the U.K. are now experiencing a steep decline in Omicron infections in the worst affected city, London, and the government are actively pursuing a ‘living with Covid’ policy direction.
Now is not the time to hide, most infected people are asymptomatic or suffer mild, cold like’ symptoms, which probably means the vast majority of Cayman residents are either infected or have been.
The one obvious fact is that non-vaxxed are the most vulnerable to serious illness and death.
So the moral of the story is to get vaxxed and get on with living.
To HSA:Just in case you are not aware of it, but our “Sister Islands” actually have names. So please tell us how many cases are in Cayman Brac, and how many in Little Cayman. Would that be so hard to do,or would it be too much to ask? Then again, rumors are interesting.
We all know which church it is so try hush.
It was a fair question; not everybody knows. Ima not hush YOU hushit.
Who cares!
So no rise in hospitalisations above 4 and the death toll of those that were fully vaccinated remains at zero. Seems time to get on with life and ride out this thing now it really is no more than flu for those with the jab.
I think most people have moved on in day to day life. People arent wearing masks in offices, gyms are full, people are going out at night. No one seems to worried about this, including me (vaxxed and boosted)
The only things that are restricted/different is the multiple arrival tests required and the quarantine if positive.
Vaxxed and boosted and carefree living. Covid thanks you for your service.
Bert the Brilliant! We should allow a spread of the virus that is occurring worldwide here, overwhelm the hospitals and then react.
Yes. Short term view. If only we had the patience to do the safest thing until we knew the threat had passes.
What a world that would be. What a world.
And if the threat remains for 10 years? 30? 50? Then what?
How have they determined that the 802 cases are probable omicron? Just another excuse to lock up more families. We are going backwards.
In a PCR test, there is something called an “S Gene Dropout”, which in layman’s terms means that the S Gene wasnt detected in the sample. The “S Gene” is not present in the Omicron variant but is present in the Delta variant.
Thus, it is preliminarily assumed to be Omicron, but this can only be confirmed with genetic sequencing (which is a much lengthier process).
@CNS: Do the 3,372 active cases include the 802 suspected cases? Because suspected cases still have to quarantine without a confirmed result.
This would mean almost 1000 people were infected over the weekend. This would affect the infection rate if not included in those calculations for the report.
According to the report from Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Autilla Newton, there are an estimated 3,372 active cases of the virus
CNS: The 802 figure is included in the active cases. The question is whether they are Omicron or not.
How can I be in forced quarantine for a suspected variant as opposed to waiting for a confirmed test result that I have the variant!!
Public Health is failing terribly. Long lines at PCR testing locations with Covid and Omicron infected people waiting to get tested, to only receive a “suspect” result. At this point why are we even quarantining if you show no symptoms?
Because coronavirus is still not a flu. Raging positive cases do not necessarily present with a fever or any outward symptoms while shedding virus and infecting many many others. Coronavirus hijacks body cells and replicates itself as a sneaky interloper. Don’t we all know this in year 3?!?
Shhhh!!!!! CITA and anti vaxxers don’t want people to know!
We complete year 2 in March 2022. Why do people say 3 years!!?!?
I was watching news from the west coast of the U.S. today. They are experiencing test turnarounds that would make ours seem incredibly fast. I wondered, and then went to an east coast feed in NYC. Same. I would have loved to test that with a proper sample of several cities around the world and in the U.S., UK and Canada, but alas I don’t possess that level of satellite wizardry.
We seem to want everything NOW. I am no exception. I want everything NOW also. I just wonder how reasonable that is to expect instant results when things are changing so quickly. Moreover, I wonder how reasonable it is to blame it on the current government when things seem confusing.
You know what? Things are equally confused in San Francisco, California. You would think they’d figured it all out by now, but nope. They are proposing to open a new testing centre in San Mateo, California to deal with the overflow. They showed a map of all the testing centres. There were a LOT. Well, it’s a big city and urban sprawl that exists on both sides of the bay.
The point I’m trying to make is that even superior infrastructures and governments and health care systems are struggling and unsure how to cope. It’s a global thing. I think we could be more tolerant. More helpful even.
It’s quite amazing how this Govt has basically been given a free pass by the media and a live partner of the population (PACT supporters?) over what are truly awful numbers with a backdrop of appallingly bad (non-existent ?) management of the situation. More concerned with losing votes …
The regulations have been a farce- out of touch/date and no enforcement.
Shameful.
Ask Skylar Mack about enforcement.
Yes, PACT is doing a horrible job world wide with Omicron. There are two current approaches to this virus. The Chinese way and the Florida way. Britain and the democratic run US are turning to the Florida way. Canada prefers the Chinese way. Which should Cayman follow? Some help for you. California and Florida took two vastly different approaches. They ended up with the same numbers.
There is also The Australian way- concentration camps are ready to take prisoners.
I would not give the coronaphobics any ideas – they will be considering public floggings next.
It’s not amazing at all. Most reasonable people realise that if the hospital is not overrun there is no good reason to lock people up and restrict people from going about their business.
Not only should these laws not be enforced they should be taken off the books.
And CIG continues their long cosey nap. Wake up pact and read the world news and adjust to the times. Jesus what a bunch of incompetent idiots
little change in the number of either newly vaccinated individuals or people seeking booster shots? So why have the HSA announced that they are going to limit booster vaccination s to a name day basis because of excessive queues? Something doesn’t stack up.
Every second, 7 people in the U.S. are testing positive for COVID-19, according to the 7-day average, all thanks to a government which refused to act other than telling citizens to vaccinate, and even the President telling them it was perfectly fine to remove their masks if vaccinated.
America’s hospitals are now being overwhelmed, and yes, many are dying from Covid.
Our healthcare systems will be overwhelmed if we see this sort of spread rate, which many of you will downplay as a mild cold.
380 trillion viruses that are living on and inside your body right now make up your human virome. Omicron might be one of them, since it is pretty much harmless while so many test positive for it.
But if you are vaccinated it mostly is just a mild cold. Protect yourself or face the consequences, we can’t continue to baby walk the people who ignore science any longer.
Speaking of science and blindness: it’s still not a cold or a flu, it’s a Coronavirus mutating and propagating every few months. Each version trickier then the last, and with new attributes and rules, that don’t necessarily get milder. We need to stop creating these new variants by dismissing the situation out of mental and political convenience. “IHU” already on the radar after Omicron, and more likely after that. The planet needs to collectively unite and deal with this in order to get back to what normal used to look like.
I agree that COVID 19 is not the common cold or the flu
But about 50% of common colds are caused by the Coronavirus, but these are not novel like COVID 19, but much older viruses that are immune systems can far easier fight off.
Historians are actually reanalyzing the last “flu” epidemic around 1895, as it appears now that this may have been a novel Coronavirus, which now is one of the viruses that cause the “common cold” with Rhinoviruses.
Historical epidemics typically last 3 years, coming in waves.
but with world wide travel so much easier than 100 years ago, would speed up this timeline, as will the vaccine and boosters. The restrictions in place will slow that timeline, as the plan is to stop too many people having the virus at the same time overwhelming hospitals.
Why did you miss out the “Spanish” one in 1918-20 that killed 50 million or so?
You could be the scriptwriter at the Ministry of Tourism.
Cue the dramatic music.
A one month circuit breaker with a strict closure of the borders would nip this in the bud and return us to the halcyon days of no restrictions and no tourists.
Haha! The best joke I have heard this week.
I seriously hope you were being facetious. If you weren’t:
And then what? Stay closed for the next 10 years?
We could still have tourists. Thousands were willing to come through quarantine, and we refused to let them. We are freaking idiots!
obvious troll…what would happen asfter this magic month of closure?
I didn’t get it..but my native language is not English.
this should be the only public advice on covid/omicron:
get vaxxed or risk getting seriously ill and face travel restriction
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.
YUP
So no limitations in order to help the old/sick/at risk protect themselves?
If we’re both vaxed, and testing twice weekly, and I’m masked but you’re not, my chance of catching COVID from you is lower than if you were wearing a mask also, for example.
U.S. reports 2,708 new coronavirus deaths, highest since September.
It’s just a mild cold, right?
Based on the UKs new Covid policies it is clear they intend to establish herd immunity using the less dangerous Omicron variant. They will let it spread and hopefully that will be the end of the Pandemic. Based on our Governments lack of urgency, the inability to get a PCR test without queueing up for hours in the Sun and lack of guidance on where, when and how to get my booster, it appears we have adopted a similar policy.
Just tell the people!!!!
Herd Immunity with a mutating coronavirus is a fairy tale projected by cowardly politicians unwilling to adopt unpopular public policy. We already know that any fully-vaxxed and/or recovering from Delta will get Omicron too, and the next ones already lining up behind Omicron – maybe milder, maybe more deadly. Let’s stop making new ones. We haven’t witnessed stupid on this grand scale since the climate talk beach BBQ. Living with death, restrictions, and masks isn’t normal living. Getting vaccinated every 6 months isn’t going to work. All it would take is a coordinated global effort to stock up on supplies, and starve the virus. Our forefathers went through decades of rationing during and after WW2 and never with this much convenience-based nationalistic hissy-fitting. A coordinated global Great Lockdown of 4-5 weeks would dramatically normalise life on this planet, and save hundreds of thousands of lives. Whoever credited would likely earn a Nobel Prize, and rightly so.
And destroy the entire planets economy in the process. Wow, you’re a genius.
So what happens if it fails, like it has in Australia, NZ and oh, China?
In before the “it’s just a cold” gang!
The fear bots are going to wet their pants on this news! Still only 4 people in hospital though. Not the doom and gloom that the fear mongers were predicting.
At what point do we accept the vaccines are working, Omicron is highly contagious but milder than Delta and we just get on with our lives? Once the Omicron wave passes in a few weeks we need to approach this all very differently. We cannot continue to react with alarm to these kinds of statistics on a constant basis. If we do not have a lot of very ill people we have to approach these kinds of things differently, so we can move on with our lives.
U.S. reports 2,708 new coronavirus deaths, highest since September.
Maybe hit pause on the getting on with it for awhile
When will vaccine be approved for children age 5-12? Without that, there is going to be some huge numbers once schools are back in.
Kids are hardly affected. Shutting down schools because one tests positive without symptoms is ridiculous.
Tell that to my son’s class. Day 1 -Covid positive child in class. First break out last year, his class the first to get someone with it and this year the same thing.
Umm, the CDC reported a rise in diabetes in children in the US who have been infected.
Children With Covid Face Increased Risk Of Diabetes, CDC Finds
https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/01/07/children-with-covid-face-increased-risk-of-diabetes-cdc-finds/amp/
You are absolutely correct. Makes one wonder why all the thumbs down.
Why did Dr Lee say we were following U.K. advice when we are clearly not. Or are we now going to blame his replacement for moving the goalposts?
Why 14 days quarantine with omicron?
Thanks CITA. You are causing the closure of the rest of the economy. We were not ready. This is not safe.
You could go and live in China. They don’t have a lot of Covid but they do close down entire cities, stop you even going to the supermarket for food and then occasionally leave you a small bag of essential groceries, if you are lucky.
There isn’t a middle ground here. With something like Omicron you learn to live with it or you try and stop it at your borders and then wherever it flares up you take very drastic action removing fundamental freedoms for as long as needed.
The problem for the Chinese is that they can’t remain locked away forever and Covid is not going away. They will have a very difficult choice to make in the future.
How is this not safe? Mass death and destruction is not coming from COVID? Seriously. Time to move on. Enough is enough.
Many businesses which were doing fine are now struggling and may fail because of staff absences and lack of customers all brought about by the rampant circulation of Covid. And there are more deaths to come.
Staff absence not from illness but from government overreach.
and because of the Holidays..wink 😉wink 😉…who doesn’t want to spend 10 days celebrating, all you have to say you were in contact with covid positive.
Delighted to be stuck in quarantine in order to protect the community from a disease which 1 in 20 of them already have. Perhaps the CMO could explain why travelers are considered to represent a higher risk than any other person under present circumstances, and what purpose quarantine currently serves?
Agreed. If we have to count the number of cases lets stop bothering with the travellers v community. It is in our community – does it really matter anymore if travellers have it? And just as we rely on people to do the right thing if they catch chicken pox, measles, a cold of the flu let’s start relying on people to do the right thing if they have COVID.
Except experience has shown that people do not stay home if they have the flu. Or even chicken pox. People stay home when they feel they are too sick to go out. So for those with mild influenza or mild COVID they will go out, and spread the influenza or COVID around. Even though the effect of the next infection is unpredictable – it might be severe for the next person though mild for the first person. If you want to stop disease spread … you cannot rely on enough people to do ‘the right thing’ to achieve that.
It didn’t develop here. A traveler brought it in and spread it around.
Just like the AIDS