Quarantine rules relaxed for vaxed Omicron cases
(CNS): Public Health officials have announced a relaxation in quarantine and isolation requirements for those testing positive for the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. As this variant becomes the dominant strain in the Cayman Islands, the rules have reverted to those in place before it emerged. With immediate effect, people who are positive with any strain but have had at least two doses of a vaccine will be required to isolate for ten days and take a test on day 11. Close contacts and household members who are vaccinated no longer need to quarantine but must take daily tests.
The changes are intended to minimise the impact on families and businesses, given the continued rise in local cases of the virus fuelled by the Omicron variant.
While the rules have been relaxed for the vaccinated, unvaccinated people who test positive as well as all members of their households are still facing strict quarantine rules of 14 days, which means the rules continue to severely impact families with young children, who cannot be vaccinated.
“As the pandemic continues, Public Health will adapt its practices and policies to best suit the needs of the community,” said Interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Autilia Newton. “We ask that the public remain vigilant and in tune with government communication channels so they are following the most current guidance at any given time.”
She added, “We rely on individuals to report any positive LFTs to Public Health, and on the community and their employers to support them in this.”
Dr Newton said people who test positive through certified lateral flow testing (LFT) must isolate and take a PCR test with the Health Services Authority at the next available testing clinic. Testing clinics are held daily from 1-2pm at the South Sound Community Centre for those needing to confirm an LFT.
Those who are visiting Cayman or have travel declarations who test positive while here must follow the same process as residents. Individuals and their primary contacts must receive a negative PCR exit test from the Public Health Department before they can be permitted aboard a commercial flight departing the Cayman Islands.
Those who are positive but would like to leave the country and are able to secure a private flight should apply to Travel Cayman for special permission permission by emailing travelinfo@gov.ky.
A primary contact is a person who has had face to face contact within six feet of a positive individual for 15 minutes or more (in a single day), or any direct contact such as kissing, hugging, shaking hands or living in the same household.
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Category: Health, Medical Health
No-one in their right mind would voluntarily test unless 1) they are symptomatic and require treatment; or 2) Are intending to come into close contact with a vulnerable, unvaccinated individual; or 3) Are otherwise absolutely legally obliged to do so.
And as for the voluntary twice weekly testing that is going on in schools amongst healthy kids, this is insane. It is difficult to imagine a more effective and faster way to shut down schools for the foreseeable future. Utter, utter madness.
We have been vaxxed. We have home LFT test kits to use if I suspect that I or a member of my family has Covid. Howeverrr…
If I/we do a self test and test positive, report the positive test and we self-quarantine, my understanding is that a negative PCR test is required on day 11 to exit isolation. My understanding is that I will have to pay $120 for each family member to retest in order to clear quarantine. Let me be clear on this: if that is true, there is no damn way in hell that I am going to report my positive self-test. NO WAY! I will mask up, limit my travels out, properly social distance, sanitise hands often, avoid close contact with others; but self-report and have to pay $120 each to get out of quarantine? No effing way! If the $120 fee applies, I shall suggest that government should rethink the PCR fee policy. For locals who are honest enough to report a positive self-test, penalising them $120 each for their honesty sounds like something that the lame-brained Panton/PACT Clown Car would do. Please say it ain’t so!
It ain’t so. I’m still not reporting however.
Further to 7:56:
According to verbal info from one of my health care providers, they have advised me that public health is currently footing the bill for PCR tests for locals who are non-traveling, self-tested (LFT), self-reported, self-isolated. The fees for the initial confirming test and the tests to get out isolation are covered by Cayman’s public health services. However, this still leaves the traveler who self-tests positive. They must pay for all tests if they decide to self-report as having a positive LFT. If I were visiting I would be very peeved to have to pay that on top of being made to quarantine. The added fee is, again, a disincentive against self-reporting a positive LFT test. With the current scheme, you are having to pay for the test that will see you having to lock yourself down and miss out on vacation activities. This is not a way to induce people to self test and self report.
Now that Community spread of omicron has been well established, we must reduce the mental burden on our children.
We must reduce and eventually completely remove quarantine for young children traveling with vaccinated adults.
We can have them perform daily Lateral flow/Rapid tests instead like the existing school policy.
It is time to put our children’s mental health front and center. we must move to stage 5 of the border reopening immediately!!
Vaccination has no bearing on travel. Get up to speed. Stop saying vaccination does anything useful outside of the person vaccinated. Stop.
Free the children now, we will work out the details later. There needs to be a mass protest outside the Legislative assembly by all parents and children to demand our freedom of movement back. Stop locking up kids to save unvaccinated persons.
Mass protest – absolutely!!! But this has SOD all to do with being unvaccinated. How are you still living with such old information!?
Stop peddling this utter BS.
Here, read this and take it in. It’s from the CEO of Pfizer – repeat the CEO of Pfizer.
” Two does of the vaccine offers very limited protection if any. 3 doses with a booster offer reasonable protection against hospitalisation and death. Less protection against infection”
READ and RE-READ and let that sink in. This blame on the unvax is pure lies at this point.
Let’s ALL come together to unite for the children. Everyone feels the same way!
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is a naturalized U.S. citizen, born in Greece, for whom English is a second language. His speech patterns occasionally reflect that non-native proficiency. In any case, in an interview at J.P. Morgan’s healthcare conference, Bourla emphasized the importance of a third shot to boost people’s protection against omicron. His statement at the conference: “The two doses, they’re not enough for Omicron,” Bourla said. “The third dose of the current vaccine is providing quite good protection against deaths, and decent protection against hospitalizations.”
Real-world data from the United Kingdom Health Security Agency reveals that two Pfizer vaccine doses are 52 percent effective at preventing hospitalization 25 weeks after receiving the second jab. Two-doses of Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines are only about 10 percent effective at preventing infection from omicron 20 weeks after the second dose, according to the U.K. data. A booster dose, on the other hand, is up to 75 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection and 88 percent effective at preventing hospitalization, according to the data.
At the conference Bourla also said it’s unclear how long a booster dose will provide protection against Covid.
The U.K. Health Security Agency found that boosters are only 40 to 50 percent effective against being infected at 10 weeks after receiving the shot.
People should let this sink in: “The third dose of the current vaccine is providing quite good protection against deaths, and decent protection against hospitalizations.”
As for moi: Decent protection against hospitalization works for me. Most of all, I kinda like good protection against death! Booster, please.
He’s making millions from selling it
8.25- Your reply is slightly off topic.
Vax, booster all you like, no one is disputing that. It’s a free world and still is. The evidence is out there for the unvaccinated so the point of “we are locking up kids because of the unvaccinated” when it has been clearly stated by the Pfizer CEO to be of personal benefit only makes this kind of rhetoric immaterial. With a 80% vaccination rate and the majority of the unvaxed population being children, who we know stand in good stead against this virus. That point of blaming the unvax is purely clinging to an old narrative which has now been proven false in the words of the Pfizer CEO.
@9:52:
Just as you have replied to what you refer to as my “slightly off topic” , I was replying to 2:33. If I am slightly off topic, why further venture off topic by replying? Anywayyy…
The Pfizer CEO clearly stated that “The third dose of the current vaccine is providing quite good protection against deaths, and decent protection against hospitalizations.” Plus he encouraged boosters. Excess Covid morbidity and hospitalisations due to the non-vaxed affects us all. People should let this sink in.
Person who sells stuff says you have to buy more of his stuff otherwise you will die.
Okeydokey.
Yeah, 10:19! That is like grocers saying that if you do not buy their stuff you risk malnutrition! (◑‿◐)
Ohh…wait…
Vaccination does do something useful outside of the person vaccinated. Fewer hospitalisations and less morbidity means less of a burden on the healthcare system and more attention and more robust care for those who are being attended to for reasons other than Covid. Fewer infections means less of a strain on the general economy due to sick/absent employees and having to cover for same or limit business. Three important ways vaccinations can impact travel is that fewer infections means the Cayman Islands might come off the travel advisories that are discouraging travel here due to infection rates. And, globally, fewer infections might mean air routes that airlines have abandoned due to Covid might come back on line. Plus, fewer infections could also mean less onerous travel restrictions, which would be good for everyone associated with the travel/tourism industry. You want more? I have more.
No news on covid travel regulations and they expire on Jan 14th. Does that mean that those with unvaxed under 12s will finally be able to travel after 2 years? Tourism have some recovery? Or will they just extend the asinine restrictions on movement which make absolutely no sense?
No word on changing the travel rules and covid travel regulations expire on the 14th. Does this mean all those with unvaxxed children under 12 are finally free to travel??? Will tourism have some recovery??
After infection has initially been diagnosed, there is no relationship between being PCR positive and being infectious. The day 11 test requirement is ridiculous. People can persistently test positive even when no longer infectious and the test requirement forces them to isolate for longer than is necessary.
Still not enough. Why are we not cutting isolation period for positives who are vaxed to 5 days like other countries? The whole point of government policy is to keep hospital deaths of vaccinated and those who generally can’t take a vaccine as low as possible, not to lock people in their homes.
When will the Governor get us the vaccines for our children. It has been approved by the UK. They had no problem finding a supply for all adults including boosters, why can’t they find even one shipment for our children..
I hope never
@9:07am..to each his own..my children are even asking me now for it. Why should they have to suffer because of the uncaring attitude of some adults to not get vaccinated.
UK only approved for at risk kids
Mother Nature appears to have given us a reprieve? No chemicals, no unprecedented rapid approval without proper FDA testing.
Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants
“As a complement to vaccines, small-molecule therapeutic agents are needed to treat or prevent infections by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants, which cause COVID-19. Affinity selection-mass spectrometry was used for the discovery of botanical ligands to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Cannabinoid acids from hemp (Cannabis sativa) were found to be allosteric as well as orthosteric ligands with micromolar affinity for the spike protein. In follow-up virus neutralization assays, cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid prevented infection of human epithelial cells by a pseudovirus expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and prevented entry of live SARS-CoV-2 into cells. Importantly, cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid were equally effective against the SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant B.1.1.7 and the beta variant B.1.351. Orally bioavailable and with a long history of safe human use, these cannabinoids, isolated or in hemp extracts, have the potential to prevent as well as treat infection by SARS-CoV-2.”
CNS: I found this, which is similar: Hemp compounds show ability to prevent the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells. It’s helpful if you can leave the link in future. But thanks, this is interesting.
OTC L-Arginine
In this interim analysis, adding oral L-arginine to standard therapy in patients with severe COVID-19 significantly decreases the length of hospitalization and reduces the respiratory support at 10 but not at 20 days after starting the treatment.
“ Effects of adding L-arginine orally to standard therapy in patients with COVID-19: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial. Results of the first interim analysis”
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(21)00405-3/fulltext
@10:09 + CNS:
Here is the link to the study “Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV‑2 and the Emerging
Variants”, published by the Journal of Natural Products:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.1c00946
Note: This does not yet appear to be a peer reviewed paper.
[Seen? Cool, mon! Why yeh nuh pass de spliff deh star?]
This makes no sense, if a person tests negative whether vaccinated or unvaccinated are they any less negative. Why the difference in quarantine days?
This is mind blowingly idiotic. And it’s straight up discrimination.
I’m vaccinated but this shouldn’t stand.
Valid question.
I was led to believe there is a difference (ie viral loads and ability to spread), but I would welcome an expert’s take rather than the government’s ever-changing view.
We’re talking about testing negative. A PCR of 35 is a PCR of 35. Unlike the government, the test doesn’t discriminate between vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Finally! Hospitals empty and cayman finally gets in the real world. About time.
Government is not “following the science” with these mandates. This is only causing division in our small community which is not healthy for society. Policy makers need to start using some common sense instead of pushing certain agendas.
I am trying to understand the absurdity of Caymans quarantine policy. The CDC policy for travel is that if you have recently recovered from Covid (less than 90 days) that testing is not necessary with a doctors letter of recovery. I phoned Travel Cayman and asked if Cayman accepted the recovered letter. Answer Cayman still requires pre test day 2-5-10 tests however if you test positive and have a doctors recovery letter you are not required to quarantine.
Apparently the testing is not based on science or public health but rather it is a scheme to generate $75 from each traveler.
Question does anyone in government have a financial stake in any of these test sites.
Not saying the CDC may not be right but we are a British Territory not American.
Not only the $75 CI which is actually $90 US, but also the foreign transaction fee is added (if you don’t use the right credit card).
Grow up. The isolation rules were ridiculous
Still are.
Common sense would be no restrictions for the booster and double jabbed, restrictions for the unvaxed. Protect the healthcare system.
what changes tomorrow or the day after? I will travel to Cayman on Friday and now almost expect that while there, will then test positive and spend thousands on a hotel room before I can leave.
Why would you travel here during a rapidly escalating global pandemic?
Only in your mind it is escalating
@5:08pm I don’t understand your logic. So, if you test positive while you are here, you feel it is okay to just continue your vacation and not quarantine? It is okay for you to just continue to spread the virus to everyone, your fellow hotel guests, servers, tour operators? Do you understand that in order to return to the USA that you need to have a negative covid test or do you plan on telling the airline you are privileged and they should let you board the flight and break the rules put in place by the US Government?
Maybe the first thing you should have done prior to deciding to go on vacation would be to purchase some good travel insurance to pay for any extended stay that you may have if you become infected.
Stop being a KAREN and acting like no one else matters but you.
Are you giving orders?
Someone needs a cup of coffee and a hug.
Dude, you got it wrong. If I test positive, I will isolate as per the rules in Cayman. I will put nobody at risk. I have insurance.
If I was a visitor, after that warming comment would not waste my time and money on Cayman. Very sad attitude. My name is not Karen.
Good 5:08!
You are reasonable and know what to expect. You are wise in getting vaccinated. Hopefully, you are are making an informed decision to travel here. You are wise and therefore, you acknowledge and assume the risk and potential added expense of a protracted stay due to quarantine. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. We need more people like you.
This should be reduced to at most 7 days (like the UK) or 5 days (like the US).
Also, roll back the 24 hour arrival pre-test to 48 hours. Its a nightmare trying to get a test if you have connections or have to overnight somewhere, especially with the current limited airlift options (that excludes American, United, Delta, Southwest etc).
Some countries have abolished the pre-flight ( 72/24 hour) PCR requirement totally & replaced it with Lateral Flow tests on arrival. Any move that assists the testing facilities to cope with demand is welcome. It also removes the threat of flight crews being stranded unnecessarily & affecting flight’s/ cancellations. Cayman is still employing measures that are somewhat useless and has not progressed along with adapting to much in the way of new guidelines as they come into view. For the most part, we are still stuck in March 2020.
Explain how replacing a pre arrival test carried out overseas with a test on arrival will assist the Caymanian testing facilities? It will increase the LFT load by hundreds of people a day. Now getting rid of day 2,5 and 10 – or even 2 of them – that would reduce the load.
I tested positive for Covid on 2nd Jan, and only tested negative today.
With a shorter isolation period I could have been out spreading Covid for at least 2 days.
Your viral load was sufficient to test positive here (with the levels set more sensitive than elsewhere) but it doesn’t mean you were shedding sufficient virus to infect another person.
Actually depends on a) the idea that you are law abiding enough to stay in isolation, but so socially irresponsible to leave it when you know u are positive despite the isolation period having expired b) the fact that you may not actually be infectious before receiving a clear PCR test – PCR depends on how many iterations they do of the doubling, and Cayman notorious for exceeding those used in the UK and elsewhere – Dr Lee admitted that some PCR positives were picking up dead virus and people were not infectious when tested.
Great. When are they going to change the rules for traveling with unvaccinated children????
If my kid is at home, testing NEGATIVE, why can’t I (vaccinated) take and lft and go about my business?
Somehow it is ok for someone at home to be POSITIVE and I can leave if the lft says I’m ok.
Does no one in government realized how incredibly backwards and asinine this is?!
Am I missing something?
Just that our government is completely backwards and asinine. To expect anything reasonable from them is a recipe for disappointment.
This will not change anytime soon, a lot of parents are taking their kids off island to be vaccinated.
Relaxed… It’s virtually the same paranoid sh*t with different babble.
The government is clearly not trying to slow down the transmission of the virus.
Meanwhile people travelling with children must quarantine for 2 weeks…
There nobody qualified at the decision making table. HSA is run a by the Hr Lady, no offense HR pros but do you think you could run a countries medical ministry. Right,
you couldn’t. Don’t get me started on the rest of the clowns.
“While the rules have been relaxed for the vaccinated, unvaccinated people who test positive as well as all members of their households are still facing strict quarantine rules of 14 days, which means the rules continue to severely impact families with young children, who cannot be vaccinated.”
Don’t think the above is accurate. An unvaccinated positive (e.g. a child) has to quarantine for 14 days, but a vaccinated negative of that person does not need to isolate (but does need daily negative LFTs for 10 days). i.e. the need for a contact to isolate for 14 days is dependent on their own vaccination status, not that of the positive of whom they are a contact.
Here is the relevant section of the press release:
“Vaccinated Positives
Fully vaccinated persons who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for 10 days, with a negative PCR test required on day 11 to exit isolation.
Vaccinated Contacts
Vaccinated persons who are primary contacts of COVID-19 positive persons must conduct daily lateral flow testing for 10 days, but may continue usual activities
Unvaccinated Positives
Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated persons who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for 14 days, with a negative PCR test required on day 15 to exit isolation.
Unvaccinated Contacts
Unvaccinated persons in the household of a positive must quarantine for 14 days.”
If you want to go outside today, make sure you are clear. That should be the minimum public courtesy, if not the regulation. We have access to a gazillion LFTs where most places in the world have zero. We can enjoy knowing for sure, every day, where others are left to guess or chance with others…and as a reminder, it’s always been about others, not ourselves. Be thankful and enjoy.
Not everyone can afford KYD 5-7 dollars daily per kit!
@5:30pm..Can you afford to be out of work for 10 days?
Exactly right.
I am sick of doing the LFTs, but do them I will, because I need to know before I go to any of my clients’ homes.
As an adult, I am quite capable of deciding:
how to live
what to think
what to feel
what I need
what I want
what to do
what to enjoy
what to be grateful for
We are born selfish, for we only have self, therefore our own needs come first. So I always put my proverbial oxygen mask on first.
So please spare us your sermon about “others” and “ the minimum public courtesy”. You are suffering from a savior complex, get help and back off.
Makes no sense! The vax that covers Omicron won’t be available until March.
Big Pharma pumping out these vaccines like Apple pumps out new iPhones
“Fully vaccinated individuals who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for 10 days, with a negative PCR test required on day 11 to exit isolation.” If you are “fully Vaccinated” how can you have COVID? Does the “vaccine” not work or something????
Where have you been??? You can get it whilst vaccinated but symptoms will be much, much milder, or no symptoms at all.
And this is good for the individual but has no effect upon community health so why the jab mandate?
Idiot. The vaccine stops you dying, not stop you getting it. We’ve all known that for over a year. Have you been locked up since 2020?
It’s hard to believe that there are still people as uneducated as the person that made this comment.
You need to understand that an infected person is carrying numerous strains of the virus. The mRNA vaccine was developed based on the strain/s that were known during 2020. The vaccine does in fact help the body recognize and defend against strains for which it was designed, but could not possibly have predicted mutant varieties. If you are vaccinated, your body reduces impact of the known strains but does not and cannot rid you of the new mutants, hence the mitigation of your suffering, but still the inability to deal with every mutant. Get vaccinated so you will have less suffering and stop distorting the politics of this horrible pandemic.
What a joke. Does nobody think of (or care about) the children?
You need to be more precise. Are you one of the “does no one care about unvaccinated children being exposed to Covid” camp, or the “does no one care about the mental health and social development of children denied school or forcibly quarantined” camp? Both claim to care about the children whilst expecting completely contradictory measures to protect them.
The vaccinated household members or close contacts can still pass along the virus so the spread will continue. In addition if a person has been vaxed more than 6 months ago but have not had the booster recently, they are no longer considered vaxed.
Because the virus is now considered to be relatively mild, many who are not vaccinated will decide not to report their illness.
Don’t matter to me. I am not testing anyway.
If you do… Don’t report it!
This comment and the one preceding it are exactly why the spread of this mutating virus. This loosely organized pro Covid movement driven by right wing conspiracy theorists is gaining steam.
Yeah no, we are smart enough not to report. Will test daily until two consecutive negative LFT’s then self release. Not getting caught up in the sham system. No siree.
Conspiracy theorists unite!
@1:35pm sure just continue to spread the virus..sounds like a good plan..
At least they’ve finally decided the rules for Omicron/Delta should be the same.
The requirement for those who test positive and all their close contacts to get a negative PCR before boarding a commercial flight is a huge sticking point. We all know it is possible to continue to test positive on a PCR test for months after a 14 days quarantine. Leaving the country should be allowed based on what the native country requires. If you are a US citizen returning to the US you are allowed to produce a negative rapid test. The is no reason for Cayman to require someone who tested positive and quarantined for 14 days to not produce a negative rapid test to return to the US.
So if I was living in a household with an active Covid case I would be able to go out, but it’s still apparently necessary to make me quarantine for 15 days after travel simply because my child is too young to be vaccinated.
That inconsistency rather suggests (a) government dont have the first idea what they are doing or (b) that the travel restrictions are now nothing more than theatre. Neither is acceptable.
@1:34 I believe it’s both (a) and (b)
The government has proved many times before today they have no idea what they’re doing. They have clearly indicated they are incompetent to evaluate ongoing data and make proper decisions in real time.
Their lack of knowledge becomes apparent each time they throw out “we follow the science” when their decisions defy the latest information learned.
No it’s c) those most affected are two constituencies that don’t get a vote, expats and kids…
this should be the only advice:
if you test positive ..isolate at home until asympotmatic.
then return to work and wear masks etc for additional 5 days.
What about kids????? This is so unfair to them! If a kid is sick they should stay home (you know, like they used to do when they had a cold or flu). If not sick, daily LFT to live life while someone else in the house has COVID. EVERYONE, whether vaxxed or not, should be able to get out of quarantine after a negative LFT. Public Health should stay out of it. Seriously. This is like government trying to record and control every common cold. Enough!!!!
So right back to where we were a month ago. How very thoughtful of them.
This is better. But not good enough. Once again, the children are the biggest victims here. Kids should also be able to daily LFT and go to school. Shame on PACT.
While we’re at it – stop with the confirmation PCR tests. Let those who test positive on an LFT self-release themselves from quarantine once they test negative on the LFT.
You can’t put toothpaste back into a tube. COVID is here. Whether its Delta, Omicron or the next variant, its here. Suppression methods don’t work. Look at Sweden, the country that never locked down, closed schools, implemented mask and social distancing mandates, etc. even back in March 2020 and compare them to the likes of other countries. We end up in the same situation. Oh, and Sweden that has 2 million students has had zero child deaths all the while their students have been able to attend school normally without masks and all the stress and anxiety of adults talking about COVID nonstop.
Sweden isn’t doing anything…are you sure?
https://www.government.se/articles/2021/12/more-infection-control-measures-to-be-introduced-on-23-december-2021/
Sweden had over 15000 deaths. That is the cost of, among other things, the kids attending school normally!