Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nick Gent says he is reevaluating Cayman’s COVID vaccination and booster plans with the intention of making the jab part of the island’s seasonal immunisation programme for the vulnerable.
With COVID cases on the decline and no new COVID-related deaths recorded recently, Gent told the Cayman Compass the virus has “had its day”.
Now, he said, the focus for healthcare professionals will be shifting to boosting the vulnerable as the vaccine and booster have been keeping reported cases low.
“I’m currently reevaluating how [the vaccine] should fit into our overall strategy. My feeling is that it’s probably going to be a seasonal vaccine and for those… at highest risk,” he said, such as people of all ages with diseases like diabetes, the elderly, and patients with underlying conditions more likely to have severe infections if they contract COVID.
Gent said the vaccine and booster will remain part of Cayman’s overall vaccine strategy.
Seasonal jab
While there is no recommendation for a fifth booster, Gent said, he is looking to add the COVID jab as a seasonal immunisation akin to the flu shot.
“It will just be an annual booster for those people with underlying diseases that could be at higher risk, and for the elderly, but not a routine for the vast majority of the public,” he said.
Gent said there are no plans to change the offering of the vaccine nor the booster to the community.
He is still encouraging those who have not been boosted to do so.
“It’s a very good vaccine and it contains both the original strain and the Omicron strain so it’s hitting all the variants that have been out there. It’s going to remain an important vaccine as part of our overall vaccination strategy,” he added.
When it comes to the virus, Gent said, generally people’s expectations around the world is that that COVID is not as dominating as it was before.
However, he added, “we’re expecting to see seasonal problems and we’re keeping our eyes open for them”.
He does not anticipate any significant challenges for healthcare given the community’s immunity levels since the variant circulating in the last 18 months is changing very little.
“We’re still seeing just Omicron variants around and, of course, we’ve got an Omicron-specific vaccine that’s been used here. Any natural immunity has been to the Omicron variety so all of that stabilisation has meant that it’s not producing the big burden of disease that we were seeing at one time or we might have feared for the future,” he added.
No need for statistics
Speaking to the cessation of reporting on COVID numbers, Gent said, the virus has become part of the everyday infectious-disease landscape and the low numbers no longer warrant statistical reporting in isolation.
“it’s got to be managed alongside flu, RSV [respiratory syncytial virus], all the other respiratory infections, the gastroenteric infections and the like. We think that just focusing people on COVID alone as a single problem has probably had its day,” he said.
Cayman has not recorded any hospitalisations related to COVID in the last two months, he noted, adding that over the last half-year the number had dropped to no more than two or three people in hospital in any week.
“In the last six months or so, we are not seeing the burden of disease that we had at the heights of the epidemic,” he said, signalling that there was no need to provide separate reporting on the virus to the community.
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