Thursday 6 August, 2020

Cayman: Six new COVID-19 cases brings total to 35; 1st for Cayman Brac

The Cayman Islands has today received 46 COVID-19 test results. Twenty seven of the tests originate from the government and there are 19 tests from the general public. All of the government tests are negative, while six from the general public are positive.

One is from Cayman Brac and the other five are from Grand Cayman. This brings the total positive cases in Cayman to 35.

One person has no travel history, the others either have travel history or are connected to other positives. The first positive Cayman Brac case had contact with someone who had travelled. The Cayman Brac case was tested because they had symptoms.

None of these cases had been previously quarantined, which is not a good sign.

The Premier indicated extreme concern with the case in Cayman Brac, given that the population there is generally older.

Cayman is awaiting swabs that are required to conduct COVID-19 tests. According to Chief Medical Officer, Dr Lee, 170 swabs are expected on a British Airways flight that is coming in with supplies on Tuesday and other orders have also been placed.

The governor indicated that 1,000 swabs are on their way over.

According to Dr Lee, if Cayman had supporting supplies to conduct more widespread testing, then it would be conducting more tests across the general population, especially with the 200,000 test kits that are about to come in on a private aircraft from South Korea.

With regards to the community mental health helpline, there are about 10 calls placed per day with an average of about five a day. Calls range between 5-15 minutes.
