Clinic to confirm positive LFTs extends one hour

| 15/01/2022 | 46 Comments

(CNS): Hundreds of people are still testing positive for COVID-19 every day, many of them with lateral flow tests, but there is still only one daily clinic for those individuals to take the requisite confirmation PCR test. However, that clinic will now be open for two hours per day instead of just one, officials have announced.

The South Sound Community Centre testing clinic is reserved for people who have reported a positive rapid test and are required to isolate but need a PCR confirmation test. While the clinic is now open from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, it is still the only location where these individuals can access a test. Over the last week, there have been increasing reports of long queues and traffic chaos at the location.

Meanwhile, complaints are also mounting in relation to exit testing for people in quarantine, and there are reports that people are waiting as long as three days to get that test and the result, adding to an already frustrating lockdown.

With testing a challenge all round, as the COVID-19 virus and the Omicron variant rages through the community, people who need a PCR test for outbound travel or other optional screening must use a regular PCR testing clinic, such as the HSA service at 31 MacLendon Drive or one of a number of private facilities around the island.

“The South Sound Community Centre’s afternoon clinic is for persons who have reported their positive LFT result,” Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez stated. “This clinic is not to be used for any other purpose than Public Health related testing.”

Once someone has tested positive on a lateral flow self-test, they are required to isolate immediately, report the government coronavirus website and attend the South Sound Community Centre at the next available clinic for a PCR test. 

For travellers who test positive on a certified 2, 5 or 10 day LFT, the healthcare provider who conducted that test will report the positive result to Public Health, but those people also need to take the confirmation PCR at South Sound Community Centre.

Public Health urges everyone to wear masks when they are around other people, frequently wash or sanitize hands and regularly use home test kits to check their status. These combined measures will help to slow the spread of community transmission of COVID, Public Health said.

Appointments for travel or screen PCR testing can be made online here

Or at the walk-in clinic on MacLendon Drive
Monday-Friday 7:30am-12pm
Saturday 10am – 12pm
Sunday 10am – 2pm


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Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (46)

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  1. Jack Frost says:

    I’m here right now in a very long line and not a single adult has been seen, children 1st.
    The children keep coming so I guess am trying again tomorrow. Must be at least at 100 adults waiting

  2. Anonymous says:

    Our patience is really being tested on aimlessly “living with” a degraded life, and the pharmaceutical pretence of having to accommodate Covid forever. We would never be expected to readily agree to live with outbreaks of Measles, or Chickenpox, or Polio, or Cholera, or the Bubonic Plague.

    What makes it all the more insufferable is that there actually is a cheap and widely available LFT tool to screen asymptomatic positive COVIDs out of community circulation.

    If we can LFT this virus out of existence, for peppercorns, why wouldn’t we be deploying that at scale? What is the lifetime cost of ignoring the best, most obvious, and readily available solution?

    • Anonymous says:

      ummm Because it would not work?

    • Anonymous says:

      Measles, Chicken Pox, Polio etc all ONE jab and they WORKED.
      Covid vaccines, 1 jab, 2 jabs, 3 jabs and how many more jabs. People losing confidence in these for obvious reasons.

  3. Anonymous says:

    CNS – I’m waiting for the clinic to confirm the positive LFT is extended by 1 hour.

    I’m fully expecting that by next week, the clinic will be able to confirm a positive LFT has been extended by 23 more hours – thus confirming a positive LFT for 24 hours.

  4. Anonymous says:

    If I am positive…I will not take PCR test or report it unless I am really sick…

    • Anonymous says:

      16 @ 7:23 pm “Typhoid Mary” – That’s what I feared by making LFTs available to selfish idiots like yourself. Hope, if you’re positive, you have the decency, sense and respect to stay isolated until you’re negative!!

  5. Anonymous says:

    2 hours a day, almost as effective as the RCIPS traffic enforcement… smh

  6. Anonymous says:

    Maybe we should all start wining outside CIG administration building- seems that gets their attention even if the complete chaos caused by their testing and quarantine policy is completely oblivious. I never thought I would miss Alden – but at least he seemed to have a grip on things. PACT seem to be passengers along for the ride as the HSA and Travel Cayman just improvise on a daily basis.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Oooh. Going from being open an hour to two – yeah that should accommodate the 400 plus people testing positive each day. FFS – a 12 year old could run this more competently.

  8. Anonymous says:

    I would not report my positive test ever again. There are no clear instructions on the exit PCR test. I think a negative test is a negative test for exit quarantine and public health should stop the exit PCR test or allow a private PCR test after a negative lft test.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Whatever happened to “First do no harm”? This ridiculousness is beyond belief.

  10. Anonymous says:

    It’s a complete shit show and while the government focuses more on handouts to the lazy our people are dying of COVID

  11. Anonymous says:

    Nobody in their right mind would report a positive LFT, let alone seek out a PCR confirmation.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why not? “Do the right thing!” and it is the LAW.
      Only a selfish person not in their right mind would do otherwise.

      My teenager just tested positive so should I selfishly submit my child and lie to School? No, I think of others firstly. What is someone in that school has a high risk family member at home?

      Is it fair to the other students, families, and teachers for my family to LIE and send my kid to school because their quarantine will disrupt my bubble?

      This won’t end with people like you flaunting the laws.

      • Anonymous says:

        At this stage I’m confident that the school is more competent than the government in dealing with positive cases.
        Keep your kid at home and feel comfortable that you’re doing the right thing for other students.

    • Anonymous says:

      I reported mines. Was no walk in the park but I felt I owed my community that much respect.

  12. Anonymous says:

    The system is crumbling under the societal pressures of adults doing exactly whatever tf they want

    • Anonymous says:

      The system is crumbing because people have lost any confidence that the limitations being imposed are necessary or that the government is managing them competently- and going to weekly results reporting, restricting the range of data released and not having any direct briefing by government is not going to correct that. Governance in a democracy is by consent – the next elections may be 4 years away, but PACT should not be surprised if people just start ignoring rules they have no confidence in – especially inCayman, where there are rarely consequences for breaking rules anyway.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Just stop this foolishness. Forget about who is Vaxed vs not and practice hygiene and move on.

    Facts are that the vaccinated, asymptomatic persons are spreading this thing like wild fire.

    • Anonymous says:

      Oh come on! Try unvaccinated kids and adults not wearing proper masks nor social distancing. Seen lots of that especially over the holiday season. Quit the finger pointing!

      • Anonymous says:

        Liar. That’s BS and you know it. Everywhere I went besides sitting to eat/drink, EVERYONE was wearing a mask.

      • Anonymous says:

        Our problem is asymptomatic positives not taking regular LFTs when they feel fine. Basically, this is just a function of manners, honesty, and relative cheapness. If LFTs were free, self-administered by honest people, and available at scale, we wouldn’t need to talk about COVID anymore, because it would be all gone – and for a fraction of the cost of a single day of now normalised lifestyle interruptions. Everyone should get in the habit of testing their household/workforce, at least once a week, even when they feel fine. As if to underscore how badly the messaging has been, we have medical institutions taking irrelevant visitor temperatures like it’s still April 2020.

  14. Anonymous says:

    In addition to washing hands and masking messaging, the easiest and most basic transmission courtesy is to separate with 6 feet of distance from all non-household. It’s supposed to be 6ft ticketable in public places, including inside restaurants, and that was before Omicron. Little wonder there are so many cases here, when that critical step gets omitted from every public communication and no tickets are written.

  15. Say it like it is says:

    The chaos at South Sound Community centre is ridiculous – hundreds of cars lining both sides of S Church St reducing the traffic to one lane and hundreds of infected people lining up in close proximity in the hot sun.Has Dr Samuel williams-Rodriguez been down there to see what an absolute nightmare he has created?. He needs to provide an alternate location with adequate parking and a covered waiting area.
    I would also like to ask the esteemed MOH how he would feel if had a son who returned from Miami having finally tested negative along with his two young sons after 2 weeks in quarantine, only to be locked up for a further 14 days and then having to wait 3 more days for their PCR result. This is not only madness it is INHUMANE!.
    To make matters even worse (if that’s possible) it impossible to communicate with any senior health officials who seem to delight in ring fencing themselves from contact with the public.

  16. Anonymous says:

    I’m a rule follower, but if I test positive on a LFT, I’ll stay home and do the right thing but won’t venture out to do the test. I’ll feel a little bad about it, but I’ll get over it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why would you feel bad? Stay at home till u test negative. The only reason the HSA want you to PCR is so they can decide if it’s Omnicron or Delta – and does it really matter? And then you get a 15 day lockdown ( at least, because god knows when they will be able to give you an exit PCR) for your cooperation.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Drove by there this week on multiple occasion’s, traffic chaos with people crossing the road obviously showing the signs of stress and panic , what a shit show.

  18. Anonymous says:

    RAGES through the community? Calm down, it a bad cold.

  19. Arthur Rank says:

    It is heart warming to know that Cayman is responding so positively to this crisis by doubling its testing opening, but two hours of opening in a crisis is maybe not enough? And what is response time for testing? 6 hours would be reasonable, but I sense 3 days is more likely?
    Isn’t it time to get real, isolation of those affected is key, but you cannot isolate if you don’t know who is affected, testing should be instant, and results quick. If we don’t do this then we get what we deserve, and the minister in charge should get what he deserves.

  20. Anonymous says:

    This is just madness. No one should report postive LFTs anymore unless they are sick and have to report it to get treatment. The legal requirement to report is seven shades of bullshit and with regard to the consequences and risks that occur if you do report, is a breach of fundamental human rights. Being forced to attend this covid camp on south sound to get a PCR is highly risky. If CIG is not able to provide safe and reasonable medical facilities, then F them. PACT’s negligence is grotesque and criminal.

    Should anyone be prosecuted for not reporting positives, they should just claim self-defence. Being forced to quarantine when you are not infectious and due to the incompetence of CIG is false imprisonment.

    Mass civil disobedience re the covid regs is now long overdue and PACT needs to be removed from office as a matter of urgency.

    • Anonymous says:

      Promoting mass civil disobedience, inciting violence is not the way to go, last thing Cayman needs – guy that be 6ft distancing, vaccinated only, mask wearing and sanitized crowd.

  21. Anonymous says:

    No staff to think things through. So says Pouchie.

  22. Anonymous says:

    This PCR “confirmation” is just such a bad idea. For so many reasons.

    After mingling in that scrum for hours on the afternoon sun, any false positive people will surely be infected. Why!

  23. Anonymous says:

    What about Ed bush? Opening that for 10 people while south sound lined up. Makes sense

  24. Anonymous says:

    If persons do not have the virus they will get it waiting in line for hours among those infected, by the time they get the test. These testing sites are nothing but incubation cells. Sir Alden, and his crew did so much better. This is becoming a hot mess.

  25. Anonymous says:

    The long lines means many people are doing the right thing. That’s good.

    Trust us more, get rid of the PCR confirmation and exit testing. PCR tests aren’t good at determining if someone is infectious anyway.

    Positive LFT, report it and isolate. 2 to 3 negative LFT’s after 5-7 days to stop isolating.

  26. Anonymous says:

    Exit test results should be same day. Waiting 1-3 days for an exit PCR result is not acceptable, it’s giving people yet another reason not to report their case in the first place. Many may up testing negative on LFT several days before their scheduled release day as well and I suspect people who would normally want to do the right thing will question going forward if things don’t change.

  27. Anonymous says:

    This is an outrage. What happened to “First do no Harm?” Forcing people who feel like crap, are believed to have a potentially fatal and highly infectious disease, to stand around in the midday sun, and then go indoors for a medically unnecessary test, will achieve nothing but spend Government money, irritate people, and cause greater spread.

  28. Anonymous says:

    This is absolutely ridiculous. First off if you test positive on a LFT don’t report it just do the right thing and keep testing yourself until you get two in a row that are negative. Second off people in quarantine with children should just stop and go about your day, LFT yourself and stop listening to this BS.

  29. Anonymous says:

    To be clear, we are identifying all the folks that have taken an LTF that shows a positive result and directing them, and others with a potential false positive to a single location for a limited time where crowding is an issue.

    Ok. What could go wrong?

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