Cayman’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign has sparked interest in the British media with the influential Sunday Times surprisingly headlining an article; “Cayman Islands awash with Covid vaccines.”
In drawing a comparison to the UK’s own vaccination roll-out, the first globally and considered a success so far, the Sunday Times article noted however that “while many over-80s in Britain await a jab, the Caribbean islands have inoculated most over-70s and will soon move on to younger people.”
“The Caymans were the first to receive the vaccine, despite having just 38 people with the coronavirus,” the article states.
It notes that “more than one in 10 adults on the Cayman Islands have been protected against Covid-19 after a gift of Pfizer vaccine from the UK” while pointing out that “the Caymans have no corporation, income or capital gains tax.”
Reporting that the first 9,750 doses of vaccine arrived from Britain on January 5, with more due on Thursday (January 28th), the Sunday Times quotes Premier, Alden McLaughlin as saying that “the relationship we have with the United Kingdom is paying off massive dividends.”
It also quotes the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development and Office (FCDO) as stating that it had a duty to protect the people’s of the Overseas Territories and that it was “committed to supplying them with a proportionate share of the vaccine that it procures.”
The Sunday Times article also refers to COVID-19 vaccine shipments from the UK to other OTs mentioning the Falkland Island and Bermuda which have received consignments and Anguilla where a shipment is expected mid-February.
Meanwhile, by Sunday the UK was reported to have vaccinated a total of 6,353,321 people with their first dose of coronavirus vaccine, with 469,660 already receiving their second dose.
The British government said it was planning to offer a vaccine to everyone in the four most vulnerable categories by mid-February.
The Health Secretary Matt Hancock said 75% of all people aged 80 and over have now had their first coronavirus jab.
He also said that the UK has given out more vaccines in the last three days than France has in total since the global race for inoculation against coronavirus began.
The context of the vaccination comparison with France on the one hand and Cayman on the other were not immediately clear.
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