Close to 4,500 people have rolled up their sleeves for the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 jab in the first week of Cayman’s national vaccination plan, Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Lee shared Saturday.
Lee, speaking at the Lions Club Melvin Jones Luncheon at Morgan’s Seafood Restaurant in West Bay Saturday, said he was pleased with the public’s response to the vaccinations locally and globally.
Lee was introduced as the guest speaker by Premier Alden McLaughlin, who is a past president of the Lions Club of Grand Cayman.
The Chief Medical Officer said to date 4,491 people have been vaccinated in Cayman.
Lee said he is looking forward to the second half of 2021 when more people will be vaccinated and the number of COVID-19 cases is in decline.
That could mean changes to Cayman’s current protocols, he said.
“I would imagine that if the prevalence rates dropped around the world, that we will go back to a conversation we were having some months ago about whether we consider shortening the quarantine period, because if rates of infection are much lower, then shortening the quarantine period is a much safer thing to do,” he said.
He said Cayman ranks third in the world per 100 people for vaccinations, according to Worldometer data and current inoculations delivered to date here.
Vaccinations, he said, must continue if Cayman and the world are to move forward through the pandemic.
“We’re not in it for the short haul. We will not cure this. Everybody in Cayman and across the world needs to learn how to live with COVID-19, and it is a very sobering thought that we will not get rid of it,” Lee said, adding “certainly not for at least, I would imagine, a decade. The only way we will get rid of it … is by taking the vaccine, not only in Cayman, but around the world.”
The CMO said 36 million people have had the COVID-19 vaccine so far. Of that figure, 11 million were in the United States, and about 4 million in the United Kingdom.
He stressed that “we all need to get vaccinated,” and encouraged those in the audience who meet the criteria for inoculation under stage one to take the jab.
“When we have an effective vaccine, the virus can no longer multiply and move on, and that is what we need to do … not just in Cayman, but around the world,” he said.
On Friday, government opened up vaccinations to all individuals under stage one following confirmation that Cayman’s second vaccine shipment, containing a further 9,750 doses, will arrive on 28 Jan.
The UK is making arrangements for a third delivery in February.
Based on this assurance, government is moving to inoculate 9,750 people using the first batch of the vaccines, which arrived last week aboard a British Airways flight.
Under the first stage of the national vaccination plan, those 60 and over, health workers and frontline staff dealing with travellers can now receive a shot.
Lee said everyone should get involved.
“If we have no replication, there can be no virus. There can be no mutations and there will not be consequential deaths. There will not be consequential people who’d suffer with long-term effects of COVID, which up to 10% of people seem to do,” he said.
Lee said it is the collective responsibility of all residents to protect each other, especially those who cannot be vaccinated by getting the jab.
“Taking of the vaccine is not just an individual thing. It is very much for the community, both the current community and the future community, because only by the whole world embracing vaccination will we ever enable ourselves to move forward and begin to forget this horrid time that we’ve had. But it will be a long haul,” Lee said.
The CMO said many are worried about the variants, but he said the vaccines are likely to work well with them.
At the luncheon, Lee was presented with a special Lions Club pin and certificate of appreciation for his management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual luncheon is held to celebrate the birthday of Melvin Jones, the founder of Lions Club International. At the event, special awards were given to members of the club for their service to community.
The event was jointly hosted by the Lions Club of Grand Cayman and the Lions Club of Tropical Gardens.
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I would like to know who the 2 people who do not think getting the vaccine is a good idea and ask them to leave the island so the rest of the 65000 people can be safe