Law changes mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for government-contracted workers will soon be heading to Cabinet for approval and then on to Parliament, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson has confirmed.
Manderson, appearing on the Cayman Compass weekly talk show ‘The Resh Hour’ Wednesday night, said progress has been made in developing the necessary legislative changes to mirror that of the requirements for private-sector employees.
“We have drafted amendments to our Public Service Management Law. We will now take those to Cabinet. Again we want to make sure that we are consulting with our staff to give them forewarning, but I would expect that at the next sitting of Parliament we will have something to look at,” he said.
Back in September, Manderson, speaking at a government press briefing, said mandating COVID-19 vaccination in the civil service was “not easy”.
However, he said then he was “very concerned” that not all civil servants on the front lines at Customs and Border Control and Travel Cayman were vaccinated.
Following amendments to the Immigration (Transition) Act and Customs and Border Control Act, work-permit holders are required to be vaccinated whether they are first-time applicants or renewing their permits.
Speaking on the show Wednesday, Manderson said there has been improvement in the number of civil servants getting the jab.
“We have seen a much greater take-up in the civil service with the vaccines,” he noted, adding there had been concern over vaccinations in the prison service, where “the vaccination rates were, a few months ago, in the 50s; now it’s in the 90s. So the good news again, we have seen much better compliance with the vaccine take-up in the civil service within the last few weeks and months. I am very pleased to see that,” he said.
Prison officials recently reported that 91% of staff and 60% of inmates have been vaccinated.
However, cases behind prison bars have continued to mount.
Last week, prison officials reported 31 inmates and 16 prison staff had tested positive for COVID-19, saying the increase in numbers was inevitable given the surge in community spread of the virus.
As of Friday, 21 Jan., 197 prisoners were in custody in Cayman. At HMP Northward, which houses male prisoners, there were 176 inmates living across multiple wings, while at HMP Fairbanks, the female prison, there were 14 inmates.
A third location, known as the ‘Enhanced Unit’ holds an additional seven inmates.
While Cayman moves to mandate the vaccination of government-contracted workers, UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid this week called on the British Parliament to revoke regulations mandating COVID-19 vaccines for National Health Service staff and social care workers in England.
In the UK under the current regulations, all front-line NHS workers in England were required to be fully vaccinated by 1 April, meaning they would need a first dose by Thursday, 3 Feb.
“I am announcing that we will launch a consultation on ending vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and all social care settings,” Javid said told the House of Commons. “Subject to the responses and the will of this House, the government will revoke the regulations.”
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Why push ahead with this when the virus is becoming less of a threat and many countries are removing mandates and dropping all restrictions. What’s the objective of this?