70 COVID cases on Sister Islands

There are currently 70 active COVID-19 cases on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, according to statistics from the Brac’s Faith Hospital.

According to the data issued Tuesday, 2 Nov., 69 of the cases involve community transmission and one involves a traveller who was positive for COVID at a quarantine exit test. Forty-four of the positive cases are symptomatic.

This is the first information relating to local cases that has been released since Friday, 29 Oct., which included the number of cases as of 8am Thursday morning. Today’s update was not released through official sources, but was circulated on social media. A Government Information Services spokesperson confirmed to the Compass that the information was accurate.

No statistics on how many positive cases have been found on Grand Cayman have been available since the Friday release. At that time, there were 646 active cases across all three islands, and four people were in hospital.

The update from Faith Hospital did not state whether anyone on the Sister Islands who had tested positive had required hospitalisation.

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The Sister Islands had been COVID-free until a first case was reported on Little Cayman late last month. Cases were then also found on Cayman Brac. This led to mass testing on both islands.

A new system for reporting positive COVID cases appears to have led to a delay in compiling statistics on cases, as well as delays in informing members of the public whether they are positive or not. The Compass has been contacted by a number of people who have been in isolation after being tested last week and who were still awaiting their test results Tuesday.

For example, one couple, who have recently retired and were planning to relocate back to their home country, told the Compass they had booked a flight to leave island over the weekend. They took their COVID tests on Thursday morning, but as they were still awaiting a result five days later, they have been unable to depart.

The couple, who asked not to be named, said they had sold their belongings in anticipation of moving from the island, and had packed up their apartment. They had planned to spend their last night on island in a hotel on Seven Mile Beach. Instead, they had to return to isolate at the apartment, which they said, luckily, had not been rented to a new tenant yet, and managed to get their electricity reconnected. The couple say they have lost a lot of money on flights and hotels they had booked.

Last week, Health Minister Sabrina Turner had warned that people could expect to wait up to 72 hours for test results, as she announced changes to the daily COVID-19 update process. She said the daily update to be provided by the Public Health Department and disseminated through government communication channels, with Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Lee continuing “to provide regular messages and periodic updates as needed”.

Instead of people who have tested positive being contacted by Public Health by phone, the minister said, “Public Health will be notifying both positives and negatives via email going forward rather than negatives by email and positives by phone, in order to make notification more immediate for those who are positive”.