While China grapples with a sharp spike in COVID cases, following the recent relaxation of its restrictive zero-COVID policy, Cayman’s new chief medical officer is monitoring how events overseas might impact the islands’ response to handling the virus.
World Health Organization statistics, as at 3 Jan. 2023, indicate that, since the start of the pandemic, there have been 10,322,499 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 31,914 deaths in China, but experts believe official numbers – which indicate five or fewer deaths a day since December – have been downplayed, obscuring the true severity and prevalence of the virus.
At the end of last month, the US announced travellers from China would be required to provide a negative COVID test, before they could enter the country. Canada, India, France, Spain, Italy and the UK have also announced similar testing requirements.
“What is interesting is that a number of countries where we might expect infections to come through are taking steps to monitor people coming from China,” Dr. Nick Gent told the Compass on Tuesday.
Nevertheless, he stated he did not believe the recent new wave of infections in China currently posed “a direct threat to the Cayman Islands”.
Gent said, for now, he would not be recommending imposing any new travel restrictions on the islands, nor changes to existing health protocols. But he and local epidemiologist Rachel Corbett are looking daily at the testing data coming from major ports like the US, UK and Europe.
COVID situation being monitored
“If at any point we feel that there is a need to take action in terms of protection of the Cayman Islands in respect of controls, testing, or measures on people who are coming from places like China, we would do so,” he explained.
He said a potential trigger for change would be if “we are seeing some unusual variant that we’d not seen before having developed in China”.
The very limited data from China indicates that an Omicron-type virus is responsible for their outbreak “just the same as what we’re seeing here and we’re seeing in the US and… other places where we’ve got population mobility.”
He said the health community believes China is experiencing an epidemic that was essentially like the first wave of COVID, which hit Europe and North America at a time when there was no vaccine and no prior exposure to the virus, leading to a “very, very severe” disease.
Cayman logs cases of COVID XBB variant
Meanwhile, Cayman has now joined the list of countries with confirmed cases of COVID-19 XBB variant – but the CMO says this offshoot of the Omicron strain does not appear to pose a more severe risk of disease.
Gent added he is not seeing signs that this strain is “of particular significance”.
“It’s a variant that was first seen and looked at in October of last year. So it’s been around some fairly large populations for some months. There are no reports of it escaping from vaccine by preference to other strains, no reports of increased severity of disease associated with it. At the present time, it just looks like another Omicron strain,” he said.
Currently, 40.5% of new infections in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are the XBB variant.
Over the weekend, the Ministry of Health and Wellness advised the community that information relating to the variant that has been circulating via social media was not issued by the ministry.
Gent encouraged the community to monitor official channels for access to accurate and credible information and updates.
Respiratory infections on the rise
He also added that “a big mix of respiratory infections” was putting strain on healthcare systems around the world.
“We are seeing more people with respiratory infections in Europe and North America attending hospital. But that’s very much a time of the year kind of problem, and we’re not just seeing COVID, we’re seeing quite high rates of influenza and problems with influenza. We’re seeing things like RSV [respiratory syncytial virus], and human metapneumovirus in children,” Gent explained.
Corbett said, in Cayman, there had also been a recent increase in respiratory illness, in particular Influenza A, and RSV in infants.
Gent recommended residents, who have not yet done so, get the flu vaccine, or “preferably flu plus COVID booster done at the same time”.
“This threat just hasn’t gone away and, you’ve got to remember, Cayman is almost the last port of call for these infections. They build up in the major continental centres… Europe, North America, Canada, and they come to us late. While people sit at home and think, ‘Hey, we haven’t got a problem in Cayman because we are just not seeing a big issue now’… Look over the water and look what the potential is for importation,” he cautioned.
Cayman’s busy tourist period is here, he said, and now is the period of “maximum risk”.
Vaccination and boosters still best defence
Gent advised against thinking “COVID has gone away”.
In Cayman, he said, there has been high rates of primary immunisation, which helps protect the islands, as does a lack of direct travel from China and the fact the population doesn’t live in the dense way people in big urban centres do.
But he added, “I’d love the rates of booster vaccines to be much, much higher than they are at the present time.
“We’ve got very high levels of uptake of the primary vaccines. The first booster round was lower than that, and the last booster round has been very poor uptake, unfortunately, and it’s a great shame because the booster vaccine that we now have available is probably one of the most effective vaccines in particular.”
Vaccine take-up, he stressed, would minimise Cayman’s case numbers.
“We’ve got to keep Cayman open for business as far as we possibly can with as fewer restrictions and as few impositions,” Gent said.
He also urged the community to practice proper hygiene etiquette and responsible behaviour to prevent the spread of disease.
“Not going into work or not going into school when you’ve got a clear respiratory infection is a very good idea. It is actually the safe and responsible thing to do,” he said.
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