Officials reveal over 1200 active COVID cases

(CNS): More than five days after government last released a set of figures relating to the current level of COVID-19 transmission through the community, at 6pm on Tuesday evening officials finally revealed that there are currently 1,205 active cases of the coronavirus across all three islands, an increase of 659 cases since the last report on October 29.

However officials said that there were 437 new positive cases since 8am last Thursday up until 8am Monday, 19 of which were in travellers among the 3,693 PCR tests conducted since the last report on Friday. Eight people are now in hospital suffering more serious symptoms of COVID-19, with one patient requiring additional oxygen, but the current total of symptomatic people has not been disclosed.

With concerns in the community about what appears to be uncontrolled spread of the virus, despite the high vaccination levels and consistent claims by the government that it was ready to handle this anticipated surge, the public is angry about the vacuum of data on test results and information about how the community is managing the unsustainable isolation issues.

It fell to Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez to address the complaints about the delayed COVID-19 data, or the complete lack of it, from Public Health over the past week.

“The large numbers of positives necessarily lead to a great deal more work in processing results, because each result is checked for accuracy,” he said. “Each test is checked to ensure that it is not a duplicate from someone already previously tested. This has meant a change in systems in order that up-to-date results will continue to be supplied regularly.”

The numbers reported Tuesday evening, however, are based on the situation 36 hours ago. The figures do not include all of the data points, such as the number of positive cases who are vaccinated or the number of people in quarantine and isolation.

The total number of cases recorded in the Cayman Islands since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 now stands at 2,241 and around two thirds of those have been recorded since the community outbreak started less than two months.

Chief Medical Officer Dr John Lee apologised for the delays but again blamed the volume of tests and asked for patience as the HSA has conducted almost 3,700 tests over the last three days.

“Just to give you some idea of the magnitude of these PCR tests, since 8 September with our first community outbreak this year we’ve done 44,248 tests in all,” he said.

Dr Lee explained that none of the eight patients admitted to the hospital needed to be on a ventilator and the one patient who is being given supplemental oxygen is “having a little bit of extra oxygen other than room air. So that is good news.”

Some of the hospitalisations might not be deemed strictly necessary in other jurisdictions, he said, but the patients were admitted because the Health Services Authority (HSA) was taking a cautious approach.

“I need to say that, on the whole at the George Town Hospital, we often admit people… in order to make sure that we can watch them and monitor them. I think perhaps in even up to half of the cases that are currently admitted, in many countries these people may well have been managed at home. But we have erred on the side of caution to keep them safe and comfortable and under observation in the hospital,” he said.

Health Minister Sabrina Turner said that she understood how some people would be concerned by the number of positives, but that it was not unexpected based on Public Health modeling and projections.

“We undoubtedly remain fortunate in the effects COVID-19 has had on our community. As the premier pointed out in his message last week, we are not seeing high rates of hospitalisation or severe disease as compared to the overall number of infections. The vast majority of cases continue to be mild to moderate, with many being asymptomatic. We are well covered and well protected by our high vaccination rate, and just have to remain aware and vigilant with regard to our prevention practices.”

The minister asked people waiting on test results to be patient because it can take up to 72 hours for a result to be returned, and notedd that the testing volumes had increased drastically.

However, she said nothing about how the rapid testing will work, which has still not been explained, or the issue of trust in reporting or the shortage of the tests, especially for families that are now using them as way of not having to isolate.

Officials told CNS that in households where everyone is vaccinated and one family member tests positive while others are negative, they can use lateral flow testing to go to school or work, but this does not apply to families where parents are unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, as of Saturday, the national vaccination rate for at least one dose of the vaccine is now at 80%, or 56,661 people, and 77% of people have completed the two-dose course. An additional 4,352 people have had a booster shot.

See Dr Lee’s full video below:

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