Week ends with additional COVID-19 case
(CNS): Another new positive COVID-19 test on Friday brings the total cases of the virus for this week to 15. The latest COVID sample to come back positive was in a traveller who remains in isolation and is asymptomatic. It was among a batch of 442 tests, the rest of which were negative. There are currently 29 active cases of the virus among those in quarantine, four of which are suffering coronavirus symptoms.
Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee confirmed there are now 1,317 people in isolation or quarantine after arriving here over the last two weeks.
Speaking in the parliament today, Governor Martyn Roper said that with the UK’s help, a vaccine against the virus would soon be here and that a “strong uptake” will be needed as a way out of this global emergency, as he urged people to take the vaccine when it is available.
Category: Health, Medical Health
The people who travel to another country for a holiday at a time when practically every government on the planet is telling its people not to travel are by definition people who take unreasonable risk. We don’t need such people in Cayman and we should not waste our time trying to figure out how to make it easier to come in and infect our population.
Get over yourself.
Everyone has the right to determine their own risk.
The world is open in a lot of places and business must go on.
Not at the cost of the health of others. Not when others have to pay the bill for the costs associated with their travel.
Not all that travel are infected , not all that travel are on holiday either.
For those that think that Bermuda’s lax quarantine model is wonderful, 22 cases were added to Bermuda’s Covid community spread over the weekend bringing the total to 75 active cases. In addition another school was forced to close. The number of dead remains at 9.
https://www.gov.bm/articles/covid-19-press-release-7-december-2020
So why is Barbados with a much larger population than Cayman, open for tourism and has fewer active cases than Cayman? Pre-tested tourists have started coming in for the holiday season and the hotels are filling up though they have been open for months.
Please don’t tell me to go home because I ask a question.
Dumb luck may be the answer.
If you want to be more scientific about things take a look at the entire planet. You will find that wherever a 14 day quarantine is not properly enforced community spread follows often with severe illnesses and deaths.
I just pee on my hands, rub them together and then wipe down my face. Covid free since 1983 baby!
When Dr. Lee recommended frequent hand washing I don’t think that he had your practice in mind, although what you do should ensure social distancing by those with a sense of smell
This is a message to the Covid deniers and profiteers who are spreading falsehoods on this site to the effect that everything is perfect in Bermuda and in particular that there are no school closures.
Bermuda has community spread that is worsening as a result of their lax testing and quarantine regime. Yesterday alone Bermuda had 10 new cases 9 of which were community spread.
There are many schools closed as shown in the following government of Bermuda links. The most recent closure is CedarBridge Academy which closed this morning.
https://www.gov.bm/articles/ministry-education-announce-covid-19-developments-cedarbridge-academy
This is in addition to recent closures at: Dellwood Middle School
https://www.gov.bm/articles/ministry-provides-update-dellwood-school
and Clearwater Middle School:
https://www.gov.bm/articles/update-clearwater-middle-school-4th-december-2020
My friends in Bermuda are praying that the Bermuda government will put health first and introduce the kind of measures Cayman has. It would be insane for us to follow Bermuda down the road to disaster.
Sure with all the testing they do they will get on top of it and make us look dumb again!
We don’t look dumb. Cayman looks smart as a country that plays the health of its citizens as its priority.
As of today Bermuda has 272 active cases and Cayman has 290 active cases.
Bermuda has been open since July 1.
63% hotel tourist occupancy in Bermuda. 0% tourist occupancy in Cayman.
My Caymanian friends are praying that Caymanian open up so that those of us who are starving and broke can live again.
Of course, millionaires and billionaires are not praying on island and are partying on.
You have friends?
According to data obtained from an FOI request and published in the other paper approximately 20% of all people testing positive do so only at the end of the 14 day quarantine period. That is essentially the same result that is being obtained all over the planet and is consistent with the known incubation period of 1 – 14 days. On that basis alone it would be insane to do away with any part of the 14 day quarantine.
Not True. All Labs around the world state the most effective day for a RT-PCR is 7-8 days after posable exposure to minimise a false negative.
Every day after day 8 increases the chance of a false negative thats fact!
Do you know what you wrote is total gibberish?
The issue is how do we prevent the importation of Covid. The answer is simple for a virus with 98% of infections being detectable after 14 days of exposure. Quarantine for 14 days and then test. That is why this is the protocol the WHO and every other credible organisation on the planet advocates.
Wrong! 14 Days is protocol for doing NO testing just quarantine.
If you do testing you can reduce quarantine to 7 or 8 days.
Please provide a citation for the research that shows that – bet you cannot
Where do you get your infomation from. This is not true at all that 98% are detectable after 14 days. A lot of people are clear or almost all clear with low viral loads after 14 days of infection.
OK – post a link to where the health authorities in each of the G20 countries state that. I would bet that you made that up.
Go to ANY Lab Facts page that provides PCR tests…..Thats right CIG does not give you the facts!
2 tests should be done around day 8 for best results. See Quest or Access or any other Lab!
https://www.labmate-online.com/news/laboratory-products/3/breaking-news/when-is-the-best-time-to-test-for-covid-19/52908
The analysis reviewed RT-PCR test data from seven previous studies featuring respiratory swab samples from 1330 patients. Short for reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, RT-PCR testing relies on swabs to detect traces of a virus. While RT-PCR is reliable, during the early stages of infection when virus levels are low it can fail to pick up on infected cells. As a result, false negatives can be produced.
Specifically, the chances of a patient producing a false negative after contracting the virus are 67% if the test is carried out within the first four days of infection. After symptoms appear, the false negative rate drops to around 38%. On average, tests were most accurate eight days after infection, with a false negative rate of 20%.
You all missing the point. Test on arrive. Quarantine the positives and release the negatives. Unless the numbers say otherwise.
Anyone still think we should be following Bermuda reopening plan.
Read the sad Bermuda news.
What Bars and Clubs have to close a midnight and can not open till 8am.
But we still have more cases in Cayman than Bermuda and Bermuda is still economically alive. Stats don’t lie. Why?
Stats don’t lie but they can be made up and used selectively to distort reality.
Read the good news from Barbados today. Tourism is doing good now. Just look at all the flights coming into their airport on the airport website. Flights from Canada and London nearly every day now.
Understand Air Canada now offers free health insurance for Canadians flying to Barbados for vacations from Canada. Sounds like a good deal.
Wonder if Cayman was open if they would offer the same free health insurance for Cayman visitors from Canada?
Ummm…you need to read the comment above yours. 20% of positives here in Cayman got the positive test at the END of their 14-day quarantine. If these people tested negative up on arrival and were free to frolic about as they wanted in the community, we would most absolutely be experiencing community spread. Duh.
Everyone is missing the point. What percent of people who test negative on arrival develop the virus? This is the million dollar question that would allow the tourism industry to reopen.
I suspect that almost no one who tests negative on arrival develops the virus. This is the data we need to determine how to open up quicker and eliminate the costly (when in government paid for care) and inconvenient quarantine.
You forgot to cite Bermuda as a place where this approach has been successful.
The Barbados approach has been successful too.
Bermuda was successful until it wasn’t. No country can escape the reality that the incubation period for 98% of cases is 14 days. It may be 75% at 8 days but the last 25% that can be missed will eventually kill someone or cause community spread and a total shutdown again.
The phone which lasts a couple years and can be stolen or borrowed? Really? That sounds super secure. If you dont know how they are planning to ID who has and hasnt been vaxed, I dont want to ruin the surprize for you.
“I’ve been vaccinated” Tattoo on the forehead.
The lets infect Cayman for my profit campaign won’t like to see this but others who want to see what opening more looks like may be interested.
10 new cases of Covid in Bermuda yesterday with 9 being local transmission/community spread and 1 being picked up on arrival.
More proof that Bermuda’s lax Covid importation protocol is a disaster.
https://www.gov.bm/articles/covid-19-update-dec-5-2020
It looks as though Cyprus – the Greek part anyway – from March 2021 will allow people who have proof of covid vaccination in with no quarantine. If not vaccinated you do your 14 day quarantine. Sounds like a good idea to me – could we not do that here? It’s not known yet what form that proof will take, but could possibly be some sort of app thing on your phone.
No worries 2:13am your savior Moses will monitor them all and all we be well in Lalala land a few deaths in exchange for some much needed Dosh $$$$ is gambling with your lives but he is will except those risk to the last Cayman Bracker excluding him and his chief officer Da Strand of course who will be safely tucked in their cocoons with Fam! No worries fly to cayman and quarantine yourselves in one of the luxurious accommodations yah so fellow Brac traveler !
What? I’m not really sure what you are trying to say.
Huh? Not quite surw which side of the fence you are on. Your ramble was just that. A ramble.
Government is crazy to let in so many people without testing them before allowing them to board the plane. And finding two many with the c-virus after landing in Grand. Now they letting people come to Brac and Little to isolate at home, crazy, they will brake their isolation and be out and about with people and if they have the c-virus and spread it in the small community, crazy, what’s wrong with Government?, are they asleep ? WHO ARE GOING TO MONITOR THEM ON THE BRAC AND LITTLE ?
Not only that but they are using the small Twin Otter to move these potentially infected people between islands and then putting local people on those same planes as soon as the potentially infected ones are off – How is that supposed to protect either the pilots or other passengers?
The same people who are monitoring them here on Grand – which is …..absolutely no one. It’s basically an honour system and it’s working exactly like you would think it would. Failing spectacularly, community transmission here we come.
The solution could actually be very simple. Test everyone on arrival. Hold them in isolation until results are available. Positive people must quarantine. Everyone else goes home. This would allow us to open up. But we need to know statistically if this would work. Please can someone find the data to answer the question “did anyone who tested negative on arrival develop covid during quarantine”? That’s the million dollar question that we need to all be asking.
Ummm….no way this plan works? In the Compass on Friday, the article discussing traveller positives: In November, 34 people were found to be positive when tested at the airport, and 7 were positive when screened after two weeks in isolation.
Since they’re testing both on arrival and after 14 days’ quarantine, 17% of positives are found after the quarantine period. That’s kind of a lot. That would not allow us to open up, especially since very few show symptoms in the 14 day period. That’s why it’s there.
Cayman has a lot of people with diabetes. We need to be extremely careful and take no chances with bringing in Covid. This is what the Guardian newspaper from England says today.
High blood sugar increases the risk of dying for COVID-19 patients even if they do not have diabetes, according to a study.
Out of 11,000 coronavirus patients in Spain, none were critically ill when they got to the hospital.
But researchers found those who arrived with above-normal blood sugar levels had higher odds of dying there regardless of whether they were diabetic.
Overall, 20% of the patients died while hospitalised, including 16% of individuals with blood sugar below 140 milligrams per deciliter at admission, 34% of those with levels of 140 to 180 mg/dL, and 41% of patients with levels above 180 mg/dL.
After taking age and medical conditions into account, patients with the highest levels were 50% more likely to die in the hospital than patients with the lowest levels.
People with elevated blood sugar were also at higher risk for needing intensive care and mechanical breathing assistance.
In a report published in Annals of Medicine, the researchers say prompt control of blood sugar should be mandatory in the management of patients hospitalized with Covid-19, regardless of whether they have diabetes.
Exactly, too many people coming in to be monitored plus too many people breaking quarantine, means that government is risking the lives of hundreds of people with diabetes on these islands.
exactly. Obesity resulting from bad diet and extreme lack of exercise is the real health problem in Cayman. Eat healthy and get off the couch and you won’t have to worry so much!
Sun light avoidance and blue light from screens, street lights and displays are 2 great contributors to serious health problems. Most doctors not even aware of that.
If they keep on bringing in all these people with no day of departure airport testing then we are going to end up like Bermuda is now with community spread, people seriously ill in hospital, school closures and everybody wearing masks at work and everywhere else. We need to start pre-departure testing and stop bringing in more and more people.
For your info there are today only 53 active cases in Bermuda and the place is fully open with people wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Bermuda has been open since July 1. Pre-departure testing has been a requirement since July 1.
Only 53 cases – a large percentage of which are community spread caused by their ridiculously lax Covid protocols. The bars may be open if that is what you mean by ‘open’, but many of their schools have been forced to close over the past few weeks because of Covid.
10:47, Simply not true. One school was closed last month and put into quarantine and it was opened again last week after everybody tested negative. I know as my son goes to school there.
As for the restaurants / bars people wear masks and practice social distancing.
People are much more economically pragmatic about business and tourism in Bermuda.
Not true. At least 4 schools have closed in the last 2 weeks. The most recent being Clearwater Middle School as you can see on this Bermuda government link below
People are spreading rubbish that Bermuda is doing well when it clearly is not.
https://www.gov.bm/articles/update-clearwater-middle-school-4th-december-2020
You will note that most positions in Bermuda tourism employ Bermudans. That makes the risks more palatable. Spot any difference?
Yes. The difference is Bermudan for Bermudans, Cayman for expats. In Bermuda they appreciate their people by hiring them, here we elevate and hire foreign labour/employment over the locals. Only in Cayman.
Bermuda’s 1 week pre-departure testing is ludicrous because the gateway cities all have extremely high levels of Covid and anybody can get infected in the week before getting on the plane.
What do you mean fully open? If you mean that they will still accept infected tourists who place the lives of their citizens at risk then yes they are fully open. BTW – you forgot to mention the 9 dead and the patients that are now hospitalised (including ICU) because of that stupidity.
Oh that’s ok, let’s add teachers now being given extra time off to travel over a busy period of super spreading.
When they come back from overseas next month the teachers will be super spreaders.
What a bizarre policy we have here.
1317 people in quarantine or isolation. There is no way that with the resources being used, there is any meaningful monitoring going on. The policy seems to be to bring in more and more people until everything comes crashing down.
Yet still no spread, nobody hospitalized and zero deaths.
Yet
Actually 2 people are dead – after long hospitalizations – but I guess they don’t count in your way of looking at things.
No, they were halfway there when they showed up.
Can you state with any degree of certainty that those two persons would have lived longer had they not have a Covid?
No, but can you state that they would have died from the other illnesses? The lady that was in the hospital may have survived but I’m not God so I don’t know the answer to that. The man off the cruise ship is another story but having Covid, I’m sure didn’t help their survival rate.
Man jumps off the top of a 60 story building to prove that he is unaffected by gravity – as he passes the 30th floor on the way down he is heard to say – “see I told you there was nothing to worry about” – You seem not to understand the gravity of Cayman’s situation.
1 case out of 442 tests is 0.25% infection rate, that is why. The threat of potential infection remains so low with current protocols, why not allow people to fly in?
According to other local news agencies the majority of the new cases are from “arrival” tests. This just proves Pre Testing would help protect us and that other Islands are doing it right.
Except that between 17% and 30% test negative on day of arrival, and then tested positive on day 14.
This is why we cannot do resort bubbles. These people, call it 20%, would think they are negative and would start to infect others, who would then be freed into the community. And then we’d all be back to full lockdown
I’d like to see the government start planning to buy and vaccinate all 60,000 people. A huge logistics challenge, but it would be money well-spent!! We could then open up the borders. I’m very concerned the latest comment was that they only plan to vaccinate 20,000 people. That means people will still die unnecessarily. Hospitals will still become overwhelmed. And everything we worked so hard for still out at risk.
Exactly!!!
That is why Bermuda which tried the lax protocol now has community spread, people severely ill in hospital, school closures and everyone now required to wear masks in work places and all other places. ‘Resort bubble’ is a nice sounding name for a place where infected people mingle with healthy people until everyone is ill, with potentially infected staff returning to the community on a daily basis to spread the infection.
And if they still Isolated them that’s 80% less cases.
Then test the on day 7 as they is the most accurate day to be tested after possible exposure.
Anything less 14 days of isolation after arrival followed by testing risks peoples lives as the incubation period of Covid in 99% of cases is up to 14 days. Testing at 7 days followed by release would miss up to 20% of positive cases.
Where did you get this figure 17-30%. It’s either 17 or 30. How can it be a range? I have never seen this published. Not saying it’s wrong. But this is the key to reducing quarantine. If government tested quarantined travelled more frequently – say day 5 and day 10 we wound have some figures to suggest if it would be possible to reduce the quarantine period. For example if no one who tested negative on day 5 tested positive on day 15 then we could reduce the quarantine to 5 days. And maybe we could reopen the borders??? Just saying that we have missed an amazing opportunity to nail down the actual incubation period for the virus. Such a shame. This was Cayman’s chance to make science.
Except you didn’t test any of them after 7 days to know that.
I for one will not be taking any new vaccine! After having COVID I would gladly risk it again!
5.33pm Would be beneficial if you could give at least some details as you are anonymous, age, what symptoms so people here could get an understanding as the government here are too wrapped up in themselves and self gratification as shown today to even talk to the people of the Cayman Islands.
51 years old, Had a head ache for a day. No fever, cough or anything else.
Have tested positive for antibodies twice.
Why should I take the vaccine away from someone that’s wants it.