Frontline staff to be tested next week

Frontline staff across the Cayman Islands will undergo coronavirus testing “early next week”, according to Premier Alden McLaughlin.

The premier said workers on the frontline, along with anyone else that health officials believe warrant testing, will have access to the thousands of test kits that arrived on island last week from South Korea.

Up until now, it has predominantly been individuals with coronavirus-type symptoms who have a history of travel, or who have had contact with people who have contracted the virus, that have been tested.

The expanded testing is part of the government’s approach to stem the spread of the virus in the Cayman Islands, the premier said, as he addressed online criticism of the official lockdown measures.

Rejecting claims that the government had “no plan”, McLaughlin said, “The government has a plan. It is aimed at the suppression and the ultimate elimination of the virus on the Cayman Islands. All the measures we have taken and are still taking are aimed at that ultimate goal.”

He said he was cognisant that the government’s approach involved essentially shutting down the local economy. “We are deeply conscious that this has a grave financial impact” and is causing “major hardships” he said, but added that it is necessary “if we are to be able to effectively employ the only known means of containing and eliminating the virus”.

The ongoing curfew arrangement – the limitation of movement to only essential workers, the ban on gatherings of no more than two people and social distancing regulations – are all aimed at stopping the spread of the virus, he said.

The next step is “testing, testing, testing”, the premier added.

“Until very recently, we have not had that ability, and we’re still not quite there. We have more test kits than we need; there are still other aspects, other processes, being worked through,” he said, adding that from very early next week, “we will be able to go very aggressively into testing frontline personnel and just about anyone we think or they think warrant being tested”.

He said once widespread testing is carried out and once community transmission appears under control, “we would be able to release most of the restrictions in place and be able to allow the local economy to restart in a limited way”.

McLaughlin added, “It is deeply concerning for me and to us, when we see and hear some of the very narcissistic comments that are made which contend that, essentially, just let the elderly and vulnerable people just die, accept they are casualties in this particular game and let them die off, and the strong will survive and we can just get on with business.

“That is absolutely not the approach of the government and absolutely not my approach. Whatever measures we have to employ to ensure that we give every person who lives and breathes here an opportunity to survive this very … challenging, dangerous time, we are going to employ.”

He also appealed to people who continued to flout the social distancing rules. “I don’t know how someone can think they’re immune to this virus because they’re 35 or 40 years old. It’s not just about you. You may survive it, but you may be the instrument of another’s demise because you passed it to someone who passed it onto them. That’s the bit that some people just don’t seem to get.”

However, he added, “The majority are complying and being very sensible. It doesn’t take more than a few to cause this virus to spread.”

The premier warned that if the protocols put in place to halt the spread of the virus were not adhered to, there would be two outcomes – one being “Death by a thousand cuts because the virus creeps … through the community and it takes months and we’re under this set of restrictions or even more stringent ones for a much longer period of time,” McLaughlin said.

The second outcome, he said, would be “if we move to a full 21-day lockdown, where only one member of the household is allowed out once a week for supplies”.

The premier also acknowledged that members of the public may be encouraged by the slow rise in the number of people contracting the virus since the first case was confirmed a month ago, and the fact that so few of those infected have required hospitalisation. So far, 54 people have been confirmed to have contracted the virus. A total of 580 have been tested.

Referring to an apartment complex in George Town where public health workers are trying to contain the spread of the virus after a resident with COVID-19 there failed to comply with self-isolation orders, the premier said everyone should be “extremely concerned” about that situation.

“Until we can go through the process of tracing and testing, we all need to be absolutely on our guard. Do not leave your home unless you absolutely have to, it’s the safest place you can be,” he said.