There have been 90 newly confirmed cases of community transmission of COVID-19 since Monday morning, during which time two people who tested positive for the virus were hospitalised, Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Lee said in his latest update.
Of the 90 local cases, two involve children. In addition, two travellers were positive in their quarantine exit tests.
Lee said the latest admissions, both of whom were in stable condition but requiring supplemental oxygen, brings to four the total number of people in hospital who have tested positive for the virus. One of those was admitted in early September and the other was hospitalised over the weekend for an “unrelated matter”.
Lee said he realised that a lot of people “will be feeling frightened or worried with this increase in numbers”, but said the rise in cases was to be expected as COVID is such an infectious disease.
“It’s important to understand that once this degree of infectious disease is in the community, you can’t really put the genie back in the bottle. It is with us as we move to reopen the borders further,” he said.
He encouraged people to wear masks in public and observe social distancing, and to do what they can to protect the elderly and vulnerable in the community. He also urged anyone who is not yet vaccinated to get inoculated as soon as possible.
“Overwhelmingly, around the world, the people who are admitted to hospital with serious illness or who unfortunately die, the huge majority of these are those that are unvaccinated so we can see the evidence that it will protect you,” he said.
As of Monday, 76% of Cayman’s estimated population had been fully vaccinated, and 79% had received at least one dose of a vaccine.
Booster shots are currently available to those aged over 50. So far, more than 2,600 people have received a booster shot.
See the October vaccination schedule here.
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It would be helpful to know how many of these cases are unvaccinated vs vaccinated. Why not share that information?
Bingo!
Everyone will get Covid. So long as adults are vaccinated it is not a big deal for the vast majority of otherwise healthy people. Case numbers are not instructive. Time to start living, and masks are not going to make a difference. Just get vaccinated and ignore the headlines. Smile and take sun.
How many of these local cases were unvaccinated?.
Our recent figures are the worst daily case figure in the world, according to JHU data.
If you go to https://ourworldindata.org/covid-cases you’ll see a graph of cases, likely including the UK at the top of the graph. You won’t be able to add Cayman to the list, but, you can see a hierarchy of the worst countries in the world by 1, unchecking the countries that appear in the graph, and 2. sorting the list. These figures are per million of population. Latvia is at the top with 1.29K per M.
Convert Cayman’s 90 in a day figure to a per million figure. Start by dividing 1M by our population: 1M/70,000 = 14.3. Multiply 90 by 14.3 giving 1,287 ie. 1.29K/million, equal to the worst in the world cases per day (for yesterday).
I am wondering when Dr. Lee will parse the positive numbers to the point of emphasizing the fact that a large percentage of people testing positive and requiring medical attention are unvaccinated. We need to do whatever it takes to get those who have refused vaccination to accept it and do what is best for themselves and others in the community. Please Dr. Lee play a larger role in getting the message out through the numbers.
We have more vacinated people and the number of cases rises…….?