Governor’s Updates

• Lifting of curfew on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac: Good news on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac and the lifting of the curfew. It is an important milestone for our islands.

• No flights for Nicaragua: We have information from the Nicaraguan Foreign Minister that they are not willing or able to take back their nationals at the present time but they will keep it under review.

• Thanks to pastors: Thanks to the Islands’ pastors and many others who fasted and prayed for 72 hours for the health and well-being of the people on the islands. We appreciate you doing this.

• Shout out to Auditor General and team and HSA: Shout out to Sue Winspear, Auditor General and team and the 28 public sector entities who met the 30 April statutory deadline and received unqualified audit opinions. Particular thanks to HSA who despite everything going on also met that deadline. It shows there is a lot of business as usual work going on behind the scenes. This is important for our good governance reputation.

• Flight to Dominican Republic: There are still seats available on the flight to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on Sunday 17 May. Call Cayman Airways direct to book on 949 2311 or book on the Cayman Airways website.

• Other evacuation flights: We remain in discussions with the governments of Jamaica, India and the Philippines. Evacuations flights remain a challenging issue globally.

• A shout out to Girl Guiding Cayman Islands: They are doing a camp at home challenge which will involve the girls and leaders setting up tents at home or in private gardens. They will be building a real or fake camp fires (with careful adult supervision!), having a virtual camp fire sing along and lots of other actives. This is a wonderful initiative to get everybody connected.

• Shout out to John Gray High School: They have raised $4000 from personal donations from all staff to support families of the children at the school with food vouchers and Wi-Fi access. My thanks to principal John Clark and all the staff for this wonderful initiative showing real care for our community.

• Opening of our international border: Our international border is the biggest risk that we face until there is a vaccine or until we’re able to test people very quickly either before travel or when they arrive here. A vaccine still remains a long way off. Immunity testing isn’t going to arrive soon. Every day we are being offered rapid tests for Covid-19 but none of these tests are approved so don’t offer us a way forward at the moment. I know that people are concerned and anxious about the prospect of our borders being closed for the next 3-4 months but that is the reality we face in these extraordinary times that we are living in. We will keep the science and the technology under close review, but the scale of international travel that we were all used to pre Covid-19 is unlikely to return for a very long time. That is the reality that we all need to live with at the present time.

• Positive cases at supermarket: I know you will be worried about the small number of positive cases at Kirk Market. The management handled it brilliantly. It looks like a small cluster. Not a surprise some cases are still popping up. It is a complicated and dangerous virus. That is why we are doing the testing of all front-line staff so we can isolate, trace contacts and suppress any further spread. Our strategy of being able to ease some restrictions in a week or so as we move to level 3 (moderate suppression) still remains on track.

• My Covid 19 test results: As part of our strategy to test frontline workers I was tested for Covid-19 on Friday with the rest of the staff from my office and Government House. I’m pleased to report all the results were negative. It was a very quick and simple procedure and it’s important for our strategy that all frontline staff take up the testing opportunity when offered.

• #StayHome: Please stay home Cayman. If you do have legitimate reasons for being on the roads, please drive carefully and observe speed limits. Thank you to everyone for your cooperation.