3 Positive COVID 19 Cases reported Thursday

The Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Lee, reports that 350 COVID-19 tests have been carried out since this was last reported on Wednesday, 8 September 2021.

There were three positive test results, one in a traveller and two in the community.

There is no current concern over the health of the community positives although one is someone with multiple medical complaints in hospital with mild symptoms and the other is symptomatic, but managing in isolation at home.

The patient in hospital was not admitted with typical COVID-19 symptoms, and a although they were wearing personal protective equipment, a number of staff were potentially exposed to the virus because of direct contact and have been required to isolate because of utmost caution for the public facing roles they hold.

The initial positive result was detected on Wednesday night (8 September) in the Cayman Islands Hospital casualty department. Contact tracing began immediately and continued through Thursday, 9 September.

PCR test swabs were done on household contacts and immediate family members. Of the tests conducted on these contacts, there were 24 negative tests adding to the two positive tests described above.

The people tested included four children, two of whom attended school briefly on Thursday, 9 September before being removed from school. Both tested negative and were placed in isolation.

The two individuals who tested positive were both fully vaccinated. Among those testing negative, five were fully vaccinated and one partially vaccinated.

There have been 102,633 COVID-19 vaccinations given in total in the Cayman Islands. Of these, 52,622 (74% of 71,106) have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 50,011 (70%) have completed the two-dose course.

There has been an uptick in the average daily vaccination numbers, with an average of 126 people getting vaccinated per day for the past week.

Among adults (those over 18 years of age), the overall vaccination rate in the Cayman Islands is now over 75 per cent.

Minister of Health Hon. Sabrina Turner strongly encouraged people to continue to come forward for vaccination.

She said, “COVID-19 vaccination is very effective in protecting people from developing serious illness from the COVID-19 virus, and I urge those who have not yet done so to come forward.”