Lee: Cayman days away from accepting EU vaccination certificates

Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Lee has said that Cayman could be just days away from accepting electronically verifiable European Union COVID vaccination certificates.

Speaking on ‘Gold in the Morning with Dr. Doug‘ on Gold FM on Monday, Lee addressed the issue of vaccination certificates. Currently, only incoming vaccinated travellers with local and UK-issued certificates can avail of the five-day quarantine. Arrivals who have been vaccinated in other countries are required to isolate for 10 days.

Lee said on the show, “These systems are being rolled out right across the world. We know they’re already in the EU. We’re working, we hope, within about 10 days or in a very short space of time, to be able to read the EU certificates where there’s a barcode to securely verify that it is the correct person who has been vaccinated.”

Regarding the verification of US vaccination certificates, Lee said, “There’s a lot of discussion behind the scenes. Walmart, all of the big healthcare providers, are all going to be producing these digital certificates, so we can check absolutely that this is not a forgery. We don’t want people to be able to come in and just have a printed certificate, that could just be printed in their back office, and then put us at risk.”

The chief medical officer insisted on the show that the acceptance of Britain’s National Health Service certificates, but not others, for the five-day quarantine was “not because it’s the UK or whatever country it is, it’s because we have the ability to check that particular country”.

He said Cayman’s cautious approach on verifying vaccination documentation was due to concerns over forged certificates, which Interpol has warned about.

He said Cayman’s Health Services Authority vaccination records can be checked through a database as it’s a local system, and that the UK’s National Health Service app was a nationwide system that is verifiable electronically.

According to the European Commission, EU digital COVID certificates, which contain a QR code, will become available in all member states from Thursday, 1 July.

63% fully vaccinated

Lee also reiterated that local authorities hope to get 80% of the estimated 71,100 population vaccinated before the borders reopen. “That is a security number so that we know that the virus won’t be able to spread when we do relax the borders. We are getting there very well,” he said.

As of Monday, 63% of Cayman’s population, or 44,793 people, had been fully vaccinated. At least another 12,000 will need to be vaccinated to reach the 80% goal, which equates to 56,880 people.

Lee said Cayman was recognised as having one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Earlier this month, Premier Wayne Panton said in a press conference that the government would announce specifics of a border reopening plan in the coming weeks, but indicated that it was targeting the beginning of a phased reintroduction of tourists by mid-September.

But Lee cautioned that any tentative reopening date could change, depending on how circumstances and developments regarding the virus unfold internationally, such as how variants of concern are handled.

“It’s been the same throughout the whole COVID history,” he said. “We’ve had to watch not only inside our borders but outside our borders, and then make decisions accordingly. And then the virus throws us curveballs.”

He recalled how Cayman was “all set to open in November of last year, and then we had the curveball of the variants of concern”.

“So each time we’ve been thrown these things, we’re hoping we can get closer to that hurdle, but it’s been pushed back and pushed back, not really by us, but actually by the virus and how we’ve been able to fight it because it is a battle,” he said.

Asked about the spread of the Delta variant of the virus leading to border restrictions in certain countries, such as Hong Kong closing its borders to UK arrivals, Lee said higher vaccination rates would address that issue.

“Those countries do not have high enough vaccination rates,” he said. “If they had high enough vaccination rates they shouldn’t be bothered, but they haven’t. That’s why they need to shut down because they don’t want the variants of concern, such as the Delta variant… from getting in because it’s very infectious. In countries with higher vaccination rates, they’re the ones that can relax.”

He pointed out that in countries with high vaccination rates, even if the Delta variant is present, death rates have fallen dramatically.

Bryan: Border opening cannot be like a ‘Black Friday’ sale

Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan also spoke on the Gold show, where he cautioned against calls for the complete reopening of Cayman’s borders, saying a step-by-step approach was necessary to ensure that the reintroduction of tourists to the islands does not resemble a ‘Black Friday’ sale.

“The number one thing is to do it safely… Once the borders open, we have to do it right first time,” he said.

He added that as Cayman slowly reopens, the risk levels will go up, and that people may again be required to wear masks and social distance.

Bryan reiterated the importance of a high vaccination rate in protecting the local population.

Once the borders do reopen, the tourism minister said, it was likely there would be a high demand among tourists to visit a “safe island”, but he said numbers would have to be safely managed.

“It’s almost like, if you think about Black Friday, and everybody outside at Walmart… and they want to just bust through the doors. If I use that as an example, that’s the danger. Normally on Black Friday, at 5 o’clock in the morning, they open the doors and the place just goes chaotic. We can’t have that chaos because you can’t control the circumstances,” he said.