Premier: ‘Cayman is ready to reopen’

Premier Wayne Panton insisted Thursday that Cayman is “ready” to reopen to tourism despite the surge in COVID-19 cases throughout the islands.

Panton said the next few weeks would be “pivotal” for Cayman as it takes the first steps towards reopening the economy amid unprecedented community transmission of the virus.

He accepted that not everyone supported the plan to stick with the 20 Nov. reopening date, but maintained Cayman had to act at some point to save the businesses that had borne the brunt of the border closure.

Panton said the cautious reopening, which will see quarantine requirements removed for vaccinated adult travellers only, was not a trade-off between economic wellbeing and public welfare.

“If government waited for a right moment to emerge from our cocoon into a world in which COVID no longer exists we may never again welcome tourists back to our shores,” he said.

Panton said the high vaccination rate – with 81% of the population having received a first dose – the introduction of lateral flow testing policies and the reassembling of the COVID field hospital at the Family Life Centre were among the measures government has taken to ensure it can cope with any increase in cases.

“I want to reassure the country that we are ready,” he said.

“The coming weeks will be pivotal for us in the Cayman Islands. We are embarking on a journey to reopen our economy and our borders to visitors after almost two years of significant closures – all of this while we continue to manage unprecedented community transmission of COVID-19 and work to protect our healthcare and education systems so our economy can remain open.”

On-the-spot tickets for COVID violations

Panton also revealed that government is re-introducing “ticketable offences” for violations of COVID regulations.

He did not give exact details but that is expected to mean police can issue on-the-spot fines to businesses that fail to enforce mask mandates or maintain social distancing.

Panton said there were “too many reports” of businesses skirting protocols and the threshold for prosecution of offences was currently too high. He suggested reintroducing ticketable offences would make it easier for police to enforce the regulations.

Appealing to businesses, bars and restaurants to comply, he added, “Imagine having to close your business down and pay fines because you shrugged off enforcing the policies and guidelines that have been put in place to protect your customers and the community at large.”

Bryan: ‘Put Caymanians back to work’

Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan ran through some of the new protocols and guidelines for tourists, including the requirement to undergo three lateral flow tests – on days two, five and 10 – under the supervision of a healthcare provider at a cost of $25 a time.

He said government was working to expand testing capacity to include a list of up to 25 providers, including doctor’s offices and clinics in the main tourist area on West Bay Road.

He added that any travellers that test positive will be required to isolate, and that insurance, to help cover that cost, will be a condition of entry. Failure to comply with testing requirements carries a maximum penalty of $10,000 or two years in prison, if convicted.

Bryan said there was significant “pent-up” demand for Cayman that he expects to translate into bookings in the first quarter of next year as airlift increases.

He confirmed that Jet Blue, which has already resumed twice weekly flights to New York, will be relaunching its Boston route on Saturday, and its Fort Lauderdale flights from 21 Dec.

Air Canada and WestJet will relaunch services from Toronto in December and Cayman Airways will also resume flights from New York – considered the key market for Cayman tourism.

Other airlines have been slower to confirm their schedules but Bryan said all operators that had flown to the islands pre-pandemic would be back by March.

He said that would give Cayman service from 21 gateway cities including several US cities, Canada, the UK, Cuba, Jamaica and Honduras.

As visitors begin to come back, Bryan urged hotels and businesses to put Caymanians back to work.

“With several thousand Caymanians currently unemployed and being supported by the government it would be unconscionable to consider granting work permits while this situation remains,” he said.

“I urge private sector partners to look at Caymanians when filling their vacancies.”

One-third of COVID beds taken

Around one-third of the hospital beds reserved for COVID-19 patients are currently occupied as the Cayman Islands continues to battle an unprecedented community outbreak of the virus.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Lee said 20 of the 55 COVID beds at the Health Services Authority and at Health City were currently occupied.

Lee said the number of hospitalisations remained relatively steady in spite of a continued surge in cases. There were 205 new cases announced Thursday, taking the total active cases to 3,673 – 5% of the population.

Cayman to get COVID drug

Lee said he was hopeful that the numbers would begin to decline in the coming weeks. He added that Cayman would be getting a shipment of the drug Ronapreve – which was recently approved for the treatment of COVID.

He said the drug was particularly useful for immunocompromised patients and had been shown to reduce hospitalisations and deaths if administered early enough.