Tag: Omicron variant
44 cases of Omicron waiting confirmation
(CNS): Government has said that in addition to the four confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus there are now another 44 suspected cases that are still waiting to be confirmed through genome sequencing. These probable cases have been accumulating since Thursday and are in travellers and from community spread.
Suspected Omicron cases steadily increasing
(CNS): In a limited release about the current situation in the Cayman Islands relating to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the emergence of the very contagiou Omicron variant, health officials have implied that there are now around 35 people infected with this new strain but only four cases have been confirmed.
Omicron already circulating in community
(CNS): While four confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 have already been confirmed in travellers over the last few days, Public Health officials said that by Saturday there were another 23 suspected cases waiting confirmation, seven of which were among people with no travel history. With the super-contagious strain of COVID-19 now circulating […]
New rules rolled out to curb social mixing
(CNS): Just one week before Christmas, when the hospitality sector was hoping to scrape up a little bit of the business that has been over the last 20 months, Cabinet rolled out more COVID-19 related regulations Friday evening that curb social gathering numbers again and force bars, clubs and restaurants to close at midnight until […]
Bars, clubs to close by midnight in face of Omicron
(CNS): The government will be rolling out new regulations forcing bar, club and restaurant owners to close by midnight every evening until New Year’s Eve as a way of preventing a potential new and explosive wave of COVID-19 infections related to the Omicron variant. During Thursday’s press briefing, Medical Officer of Health Dr Samuel Williams-Rodriguez […]
Get booster shots to avoid COVID catastrophe
John Snow writes: I’m a scientist. I’m worried. Very worried. I feel these islands are sleepwalking into a catastrophe greater than anything in living memory, greater even than Ivan or the ’32 Storm. We are on the verge of a national crisis that can be seen as clearly as an approaching hurricane and no one […]
Roper urges booster take-up as Omicron arrives
(CNS): There were just 29 new cases of COVID-19, including two travellers, among 864 PCR tests carried out between 8am Tuesday and 8am Wednesday, the lowest number in one day since early October with a positivity rate of less than 3.5%. But the good news that the community transmission appears to be slowing was undermined […]
Traveller to Cayman has Omicron variant
(CNS): Public Health officials have confirmed that a traveller currently in quarantine has the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It was detected through genomic sequencing in a test sample but officials have not said which country the individual had travelled from, when they arrived, if they had been in isolation from the point of […]
Omicron fuels new rules on COVID testing
(CNS): Government has published new regulations that take effect on Friday, 17 December, which reduce the COVID-19 testing window for arriving passengers and people travelling to the Sister Islands. Travellers must now present a negative test result for COVID-19 that is no more than 24 hours old before boarding a plane where a transit or […]
Omicron travellers’ contacts to lock down
(CNS): Public Health has changed the rules again for household members and primary contacts of travellers who test positive for COVID-19 on their return to the Cayman Islands. Under the new regulations, if a traveller tests positive, their family and contacts, even if they are negative, must stay locked down until they know that the […]
Cabinet restricts travellers over Omicron variant
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has introduced travel restriction from nine countries in southern Africa and one in Europe in light of the emergence of a new coronavirus variant, which has been named Omicron. The countries affected are Belgium, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
