Health Minister Sabrina Turner said in Parliament Tuesday that the government would be announcing plans this week to assist people who are in mandatory quarantine because of the recent local COVID-19 outbreaks.
Hundreds of people across Cayman have been required to isolate since the first local transmission case this year was reported early last month. Since then, there has been dozens of positive cases, many involving school children.
Turner said help would be provided for those in quarantine whose employers are not paying them during their period of enforced isolation.
The minister, speaking during a debate on mandatory vaccinations Tuesday morning, said this was not “welfare” but a means to temporarily assist those who suddenly find themselves in quarantine and without a wage.
On Monday, officials announced 38 new cases of community transmission of COVID, with the majority students from Prospect Primary School, Triple C School, Cayman Academy, John Grey High School, Clifton Hunter High School and two pre-schools.
Under current protocols, the households of COVID-positive individuals are required to quarantine with them for 14 days.
Premier Wayne Panton, during Tuesday’s debate, urged employers who cannot pay their quarantining staff to contact government before informing employees they won’t be paying them. He also acknowledged the challenges being faced by local small businesses whose staff are forced to go into quarantine.
He added that his government is working on “policy solutions” for this matter.
Lack of communication
During the debate, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson also addressed people who have found themselves needing to isolate “at a moment’s notice”, apologising to them for a lack of communication and service from authorities while they were in quarantine.
Manderson said a “wellness team”, with a “wellness manager”, was being set up to deal with the issue.
He said the plan is to have civil servants checking in on those in quarantine on a daily basis, answering their calls and providing “all the assistance” they need.
“There are people right now who [are] hurting, who [are] not being properly communicated with, who are having to call, without getting a response – we have to fix that and we will. We are working overtime to make it happen,” he told legislators.
He added, “I want to apologise to all the people who have not received the kind of service they deserve and we expect. We will get this right. This is not a nationalistic thing, it’s a Caymankind thing. We want to treat everyone with courtesy and respect and ensure we deliver on our mandates.”
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