The arrival of 52,000 swabs on island this week has boosted Cayman’s ability to sustain significant COVID-19 testing.
A further 100,000 swabs, which are used to collect samples for testing, are also due to arrive in Cayman shortly, according to a press release issued by the Governor’s Office on Thursday evening.
The operation to source the swabs from China was carried out by the Dart Logistics team, led by Chris Duggan, Gary Gibbs and Simon Fenn. The supplies came from a manufacturer in China and were shipped to Cayman from Shenzhen in southern China, according to the press release.
The Governor’s Office worked with Dart and the British consulate general in Guangzhou to help facilitate the release of the consignment from China.
Governor Martyn Roper said in the release, “Testing remains a vital objective for government and a key part of our strategy to open up the economy whilst keeping everyone in Cayman safe. The process and logistics of ensuring we can do this are challenging. We have had great successes with procuring the testing kits from (South) Korea, extraction kits from the USA and UK, and now this new order of swabs, which are absolutely vital.”
The release also quoted Duggan as saying, “Given these unprecedented times, it is absolutely vital for the public and private sectors to engage collaboratively in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. We were very happy to be able to leverage our contacts and resources to facilitate the procurement of these swabs, and it was the collective efforts of the Dart team, and the teams at the HSA and the Governor’s office that enabled us to successfully get them to Cayman.”
Last month, Cayman’s testing capacity was bolstered massively when 200,000 test kits were obtained form South Korea. Cayman has retained 100,000 of the kits and agreed to sell the remaining 100,000 to other jurisdictions in the region, with government previously announcing the sale of 35,000 kits to Bermuda and 20,000 to Barbados.
On Thursday this week, a supply of 30,000 personal protective equipment kits arrived on island from China, via Mexico and Jamaica.
Related Videos
