Hospital admissions climb as virus spreads

| 13/01/2022 | 87 Comments

(CNS): Public Health officials said that there are now nine patients in hospital as a result of COVID-19 after three more people were admitted over the last day, reflecting the anticipated knock-on effect from the continued uncontrolled spread of the virus through the community. Another 357 positive tests emerged during the latest results, and officials said that over 5% of the population is now infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Autilia Newton reported that eleven of the latest positive cases were among travellers and of the 346 community cases, 19 were in the Sister Islands. Rumours circulated on social media Wednesday of an islandwide lockdown for Cayman Brac because of the recent spike in cases, but officials said these were false.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Department on Grand Cayman is struggling to deal with the demand for PCR tests from people who are testing positive from lateral flow tests. The South Sound Community Centre remains the only place where those who have a positive lateral flow test can seek the requisite official test, and yesterday CNS received several reports of lengthy queues, long waits, major parking problems and congestion at the location.

While there are now no differences in the rules for people infected with the much more contagious Omicron variant and any other strain of this relentless coronavirus, officials continue to track the Omicron cases. There have been 132 confirmed cases so far and another 1,830 probable cases of the strain, which is now considered the dominant variant.

Officials said that there are currently 3,585 active cases of the virus with 3,334 of those as a result of community transmission with even more in isolation. The total number of cases in Cayman since the start of the pandemic is now 12,023.

Meanwhile, 59,097 people, or 83% of the estimate population of 71,106, have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 57,585 have had two doses. Booster numbers inched up on Wednesday with 18,550 people now having had that third shot, which is 26% of the population.


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: ,

Category: Health, Medical Health

Comments (87)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Caymanian says:

    So….curious….how weak is this Omicron again?

    Seems more and more bed in HSA is being filled.

  2. Anonymous says:

    It’s been hard enough to read 350 cases a day, now we have to wait a week and the next number will be 2000+ on the week and we then have to wait a week to see the following report of maybe 3000, maybe only a 1000. It’s not good enough, and NOT global standard.

    Stick with daily reports!

    • Anonymous says:

      CITA say no way Jose

    • Anonymous says:

      Does your mask fit tighter or looser based on whether you get daily or weekly reports? Get a life.

    • Caymanian says:

      PACT….PACT

      PACT does not want it. It makes it hard to say that they are in fact doing their job when in FACT they are failing miserably. PPM for all their issues did a far better job containing, tracing and eliminating and stray cases.

      I am not naive to know that Omicron would not have penetrated the community BUT they would have dealt with it better.

      As for deaths. I am just curious as to when the “Open Borders now” people will say the rush to open the borders quickly has in fact costed Caymanian lives.

      I am fulled vaxxed and boosted but I realise there are those of us that ni matter what can not catch and survive Covid. I dislike immensely antivaxxers with all their BS excuses for not vaxxing.

      We are losing our people.

  3. Anonymous says:

    I was in isolation with Omicron, and to be honest at this stage of the pandemic in Cayman, I dont understand the tough measures.

    I think when you are symptomatic, coughing, sneezing, etc, you should be away from people. But I only had symptoms for 3 out of 11 days.

    I feel I should be able to go exercise outside my house/ apt or go to the beach if I was not showing symptoms, be able to do my curbside pickup. All with following the mask, and sanitation protocols. This is adjusting to life with Covid.

    POV, if you’re sick stay home. People would do this more if they weren’t afraid their jobs or economic resources would be at risk.

  4. Annoyed says:

    Whatever. It has been two years. It is not going away. We need to learn to deal with this. Are we we going to move on to a ‘forever’ that is in a government mandated quarantine? Forcing innocent people to lock down to protect from a risk we might not even face? It is time to end this now. The erosion of civil liberties is terrifying.

    If you are at risk, than you need to be cautious. If you are unvaccinated than you need to be careful. Everyone else is done with giving up their life and freedom for you. And by ‘you’ I mean CIG and unvaccinated.

    • Beaumont Zodecloun says:

      I don’t believe you are one of us.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why does “learning to live with covid” mean “people need to accept the deaths of loved ones and long covid” and not “businesses need to learn to live with the isolation period and improve their ventilation”?

      • Brian says:

        Can you please go back to the years prior to covid and point out all the years that no one died from illness…..ill wait…….I’m guessing you haven’t found the data yet. When did we as a society act like people never got sick , people never died and people never went to the hospital. His statement is 100% correct and you just don’t like it because you think we lived in a fairytale of people living forever prior. The damage this will have done to young children is going to wreck havoc in the long term if you keep acting like this.

      • Anonymous says:

        Every 46 seconds, 1 American dies of COVID-19, according to the seven-day average. The threat of Covid, regardless of variant is real and it’s deadly and it’s escalating. No country is immune.

        • Anonymous says:

          Please double check what “dying with covid” means in many countries

          • Anonymous says:

            Guess what? If you die with COVID you’re still just as dead as you’d be if you died from COVID.

        • Anonymous says:

          Those who died from COVID with “underlying conditions” still suffered a preventable death and deserved to live too.

          “But did they have any underlying conditions” is one of the most heartless and ableist things you could ask someone who just lost a loved one to COVID. These are the vulnerable people we are supposed to take collective action to protect. These deaths aren’t somehow “less”

        • Anonymous says:

          Fixed it for you.
          In 75% of deaths from covid AMONG VACCINATED INDIVIDUALS in the US, the individuals had 4 or more comorbidities,
          https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/covid-deaths-4-comorbidities/

      • Anonymous says:

        Keep them at home and get three jabs. We’re tired of scare tactics. None of your loved ones are dying.

        • Anonymous says:

          Today in Covid news: The Philippines reports 39,004 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase on record

      • Anonymous says:

        Because the death rate is so low that no one with a brain cares

      • Anonymous says:

        Because this Governments balls are so tiny. Listening to a minority of disgusting people and not their own.

    • Anonymous says:

      Have you heard of the Spanish Flu?

      The earliest documented case was March 1918 in Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April.

      Two years later, nearly a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected in four successive waves. Estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

      It also caused permanent chronic illnesses in tens of millions of people.

      Kidney disease, heart disease, developmental disabilities, stroke victims, etc

      Doctors decades later could tell exactly when their patient’s mother contracted the flu during her pregnancy by which organ system shut down first.

      In the wake of a devastating pandemic, millions of survivors were left with debilitating permanent health issues.

      “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana

    • Caymanian says:

      Yes. Why yes we need to protect you idiot from breeding. Or was that breathing???

    • Anonymous says:

      We have to learn to live with covid because people like you didn’t want to stay home or wear a mask.

    • Anonymous says:

      ‘Forcing innocent people’. What the hell does that mean? Does having the virus make you guilty?

    • Anonymous says:

      “Omicron’s mild. Let it rip.”

      One month later: “Why isn’t my trash getting picked up? Where’s the produce at the grocery store? Why did the clinic cancel my appointment? Why hasn’t my kid’s teacher come back to school? I demand [cough] service!”

  5. Anonymous says:

    South Sound Community center was a mess yesterday. Cars parked everywhere and people walking in the road. Not a good combination for how some people drive on that stretch.

    LFT sites are ridiculous. Mingling people for travel and people who think they have Covid. If you didn’t have it coming in, you probably will waiting around in a crowd for an hour.

    CIG has two options. 1) Keep up the strict measures that don’t work as shown by the last 4 months and infringe on people’s time, wallet, and freedom of movement or 2) Implement a plan that allows people to start getting back to their lives with the understanding that a large portion of people will eventually catch Covid.

    • Anonymous says:

      Sound plan! Let’s get back to normal and making profits and if some die along the way, it’s just the cost of doing business.

    • Anonymous says:

      So, let’s choose option 2 and the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and gather in public spaces and offices with no upgrades to ventilation systems and stick our proverbial heads in the sand as sickness and possible death falls upon our fellow people. What could possibly go wrong?

      • Anonymous says:

        From the moment one is conceived, millions things can go wrong. Like it or not, this is how things are. People die from imaginable and unimaginable wrongs and there’s nothing you can do about it.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Despite enviable vaccination record, 17% of our population has contracted COVID in just the last 4 months because two years in, many still can’t keep 6 feet of separation from non-household – even as required by law. Such a simple courtesy. Can we please try? Have any tickets been written? What are those stats?

    • Anonymous says:

      You really think Omicron cares about 6 feet, 15 minutes, and your silly cloth mask? This is spreading because we are going into the same buildings. Breathing the same air. Sure we should all be doing what we can, but the virus has out mutated our attempts to control it.

      • Anonymous says:

        And DeltaCron is on the way

        • Anonymous says:

          January 13, 2022
          U.S. COVID update: Cases, deaths, and hospitalizations continue to rise

          – New cases: 906,713
          – Average: 812,208 (+20,405)
          – States reporting: 47/50
          – In hospital: 154,131 (+4,012)
          – ICU: 25,621 (+451)
          – New deaths: 2,136
          – Average: 1,865 (+48)

    • Anonymous says:

      6 foot separate is not required “by law”. Bunch of nonsense.

    • Anonymous says:

      🙀Fear kills, so you know.

      Distancing is so 2020.

      Can you please try to see a mental health professional for you appear to be suffering from “Karen’s syndrome”? Such a simple courtesy to the rest of us.

      • Anonymous says:

        And this is why the mutating virus will continue to spread unabated in perpetuity. Enjoy the downward spiral that you and your ilk will be responsible for.

    • Anonymous says:

      Great. Approximately 17% have natural immunity.

    • Anonymous says:

      The dislikes here answer your question. The pure unadulterated selfishness of those who don’t care how the pandemic affects others as long as they get their way.

  7. Anonymous says:

    CNS I feel it for you having to read the comments on any Covid related article … Keep going strong … this too hopefully will soon pass… Covid draws the crazies out.

  8. Anonymous says:

    or…
    hospitisations down 50%+ from peak covid level…

  9. Anonymous says:

    How many of the hospitalized are unvaccinated?

  10. Anonymous says:

    UK announced today self-isolation is reduced to 5 days (from 7 days). US CDC recommendation is down to 5 as well from a couple weeks ago.

    Why arent we following the UK? We are following the UK on under-12 vaccines (ie, currently not vaccinating them), why not follow them on this aspect.

  11. Anonymous says:

    our health service is comfortably dealing with patients needing care.
    this is a fact.

    • Anonymous says:

      Deaths and emergency care aren’t the only yardsticks. Long COVID, mass absenteeism and business interruption are the new economic consequences of ignoring current variant. That also includes EMS and hospital staff who may become positive and have to isolate. Back in ordinary times, no reasonable person would think of sneaking off to work or school if they had a contagious disease, whether it be a cold, a flu, mono, chickenpox, measles, this, or something else. You stay at home until you’re better. I don’t understand why so many people feel this should be any different, considering the stakes. If anything, it’s easier to know for sure because we can access LFTs and verify results in a few minutes. We need a red light green light app that can load in the test QR for that test day, read the result and display for entry to supermarket. Show today’s dated result for access to all public places. LFT cost is <$6. We could even have concerts again.

  12. Anonymous says:

    0.01% of the population is in hospital with Covid. Even less because of Covid.

    When will the other 99.99% of the population be allowed their freedoms back?

    • Anonymous says:

      The problem is in your phrasing. We cannot sit back and wait for someone else to ‘give’ us our freedoms back. The idea that we sit and wait for a group of people to decide whether we can go about our lives is mind boggling.

      #peacefulnoncompliance

    • Anonymous says:

      Why so selfish? Are you locked up? The degrees of freedom you enjoyed before the pandemic have been reduced accordingly, quit bellyaching and live with it.

    • Anonymous says:

      What freedoms have been taken away from you besides preventing you from spreading the virus?

  13. Anonymous says:

    What about Ed Bush? I believe people can go there as well!

  14. Anonymous says:

    How many cases in Cayman Brac, how many in Little Cayman?

    • Anonymous says:

      How many in Owen Island? Little Cayman Brac? South Sound Key?

      • Beaumont Zodecloun says:

        You’re saying that the Sister Islands differentiation doesn’t matter. You’re implying that the data in general doesn’t matter.

        What is the matter with you?

  15. Anonymous says:

    Why are people still going to get PCR tests? If you have a positive LFT, stay home until it’s negative for two consecutive days and then go about life. Anyone who lives in your household can daily LFT and if negative, can go about their business. THAT is how you live with COVID.

    The genie is out of the bottle. Public Health does not have the resources to “control” this.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why are people going? Because public health makes them. It’s the law. And it’s not to ensure it’s not a false positive – it’s so they can identify whether it’s Omnicron.

      • Anonymous says:

        Who cares if is Omicron, Delta or original COVID. What does it even matter at this point? By now all of us know at least a handful of people who have had it. Would it make a difference to know which variant? This is not a compelling case to get a PCR and volunteer yourself into the system.

        As for reporting and getting a PCR being “the law”. I would LOVE to see the government prosecute and jail someone who didn’t report their positive LFT but instead just stayed home for 10 days and self-quarantined until they had a negative LFT. Lol.

    • Anonymous says:

      I tend to agree.
      U.K. allowed release after 10 days (which we followed) then reduced it to 7 days & today announced 5 days isolation. When will our rules change (aside from announcing this week a reduction from 14 to 10 days for suspected omicron cases)?

  16. Anonymous says:

    Not safe. Not ready. And Public Health are plainly in no position to even help. In fact, they are probably making things worse by requiring everyone who suspects they may be ill to line up for hours at super spreader events! Testing should be done outdoors!

    • Anonymous says:

      And vaccinations. And boosters. And they should be available 24/7, to everyone that needs one! People are being turned away because they have the wrong last name. Insanity!

  17. Caymanian says:

    Ooh PACT WHY….WHY….

    Its not that PACT could have prevent Omicron entering, its just their piss poor management of the community transmissions and their policies.

    It just leaves us all shaking our head asking WHY….

    Why did we vote these stooges into office to wreck the Cayman Islands.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because the other stooges weren’t any better.

    • Anonymous says:

      because we were tired of the previous stooges. PACT is good though, because they show that no person or group of people will change anything within the government. We all know the real string pullers behind government and what their motives are.

      I for one am truly happy we got PACT because maybe people will start to realize we need a real change in the way things operate. We need a new bus instead of changing who drives the bus.

    • Anonymous says:

      The PACT government didn’t cause the current situation ,they are managing it though with the best resources that are available, people need to be mindful of that .
      Look to the former government & their quotes , largely driven by the [then] chief medical officer. We were threatened with ‘Hundreds’ of fatalities due to the virus, which has never happened. We were told they would not allow any community transmission to spread , that night curfews would stop the virus spreading, that swimming in the ocean was a threat to public health , that spit in a scuba face-mask would be deadly. But far more damaging has been the threat that commercial business being open would be a threat to public health. Just look back at these comments made and measures taken, then look at the current published H.S.A numbers board on the daily Covid situation.

    • Anonymous says:

      From the day they so hungrily grabbed the reins of power I knew their collective management would not be worth a good crap in the bush…

    • Anonymous says:

      how have they wrecked cayman?
      i’m no pact fan but at least they are re-opening and dealing with the reality…
      the ‘close the borders’ mentality has been proven to be a failure worldwide and only delays the inevitable.

    • Anonymous says:

      Because there was a glimmer of hope they might be better than the other stooges?

      Hint, hint – ya all better get ‘non stooges’ on your election ballots next time.

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.