Governor and Premier get their booster shots

By Christopher Tobutt

His Excellency Mr. Martyn Roper and Premier, Hon. Wayne Panton took the lead in getting their covid-19 booster shots on Friday 22 October. The government is rolling out booster shots for the over-50’s, and so Mr. Panton and Mr. Roper rolled their sleeves up at the Lions Centre.

“Booster shots are very important, because we do know that the coverage and level of protection offered by the vaccine does wane after a period of time,” Mr. Panton said. “Particularly for those people who are older, it is great to be able to have the facility to get booster shots for them so that they can maintain a very high level of protection. We’re here to promote that and we think that having booster shots particularly important for the elderly and those that are more vulnerable, as well as our health care workers who have been vaccinated. It’s a very significant part of our level of protection; the way we are going to successfully live with covid and to continue to rebuild our economy after reopening.”

Mr. Panton went on to explain that he didn’t see that it would be practical to eliminate the virus: “I have said in the past that covid is coming, and I have said that we will have to learn to live with it,” he said. “This is about getting our people protected as much as possible, and we can do no better than for people to get their shots.”

Despite the number of school children who have recently tested positive, Mr. Panton went on to say that there were not presently any plans to mandate teachers for the shots. “Government cares about people. They care very much about their children,” he added.

After he had his shot, Governor Martyn Roper commented, “I think this is really important that we can roll out the booster programme to our over 50s. It is an absolutely fundamental element in our measures to live with covid. In Cayman we are having a lot of mitigations in place to help us limit the spread, which includes mask-wearing, social distancing, and it includes the very high vaccination rate and it includes the booster roll-out. We are very fortunate to have the Pfizer vaccine, and I saw a study yesterday that said this booster vaccine dose is 96 percent efficient at stopping covid infections, which is really encouraging for all our elderly and vulnerable people.”

Hon. Sabrina Turner, MP Minister for Health, said, “I think that the booster shot adds another layer of protection over our people, based on the data that’s coming out, for people who have had their second jab more than six months ago. Especially as we begin to open our borders that much more, we are doing everything to encourage persons to take this opportunity, and it’s free”