Cayman possible border reopening without quarantine by April or May!

[Sue/Dave]

Vaccination rate could mean April/May border reopening.
Premier: Vaccination rate could mean April/May border reopening - Cayman Compass

Speaking at a press briefing Tuesday, the premier said once 70% of the population has received a second dose of the vaccine, people would be able to enter Cayman without quarantining.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Open under what conditions? The last Caymen reopening plan I saw for a person to skip the quarantine every person in their party had to be vaccinated, have a PCR test to board the plane, plus an instant test once they land. But not there is more and more evidence that the vaccine doesn't just abate the symptoms, but it also reduces transmission.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...shot-stops-covid-s-spread-israeli-study-shows

So having vaccinated people doing an expensive PCR test to board the plane, and then the instant test after arrival makes little sense.

 

[Alucard]

Yup. All members of the party are going to have to be vaccinated in order to not need to quarantine. And there will be testing.

I have a feeling that if and when the evidence is conclusive that the vaccines reduce transmission to acceptable levels, they will remove the testing requirements, but that is a pure guess on my part.

Right now, getting a vaccine is absolutely key for anyone who is going to want to travel to Cayman after they get to the stated 70% of the population inoculated requirement. If you can't get that, then other destinations should be considered.

 

[AggieDiver]

Anybody hear anything new about maybe opening back up next month? Or are they going to push it out to June....and then August?

 

[mi000ke]

Per the Premier at the latest press briefing on March 10, the vaccination target for Cayman removing the quarantine for those visitors who have 1) received their last vaccination shot at least two weeks prior to travel, 2) had a negative test result within 72 hours of their travel, and 3) tested negative on arrival is now "70-80% of the total population" being vaccinated - which was later clarified in the briefing as 80%. The Premier also implied that at that point, anyone who wanted to come to Cayman could do so. (Currently you have to be a citizen, resident, property owner, close relative of one of those - or connected).

The exact percent target still seems to be an open issue, as well as what constitutes "the total population." If children are included in total population, then achieving the 80% target will be difficult under any circumstances (We are currently at almost 40% of total population, and at over 90% of over-60s). They did say that they are planning to lower the age of vaccine eligibility from 16 to 12 years old.

(Btw, having hit the 90% target for us old folks, the quarantine period was reduced to 10 days as of yesterday.)

Cayman will have enough vaccine on hand by April 7 to vaccinate every adult in the country, and the premier suggested it would be early May before they could all be administered, assuming everyone was willing to get vaccinated. I know many folks here who are hesitant to get the jab, however.

When asked later by one of the press about some specifics on border opening, the Premier replied that there are "some months" before they would have to resolve the issue.

The other factor to consider is that Cayman is having an election April 14, and the current administration seems more amenable to opening that the opposition. So opening day will probably also depend on which party or coalition ends up controlling the legislative assembly.

And finally, the latest rumor going around with some of our local friends was a June 5 opening. I don't give that much credence.

Sooo.... putting it all together, I would not expect to see the quarantine removed until sometime this summer.

 

[AggieDiver]

I can see wanting to get to the 80% goal before allowing just anybody to come in. But it really seems like they could safely do an intermediate step involving requiring the visitors to be vaccinated, and the pre and post arrival testing. Particularly with the resorts on Little and Brac, it seems like the could vaccinate all the staff and require guests not to leave the resort and have almost no risk whatsoever. But I guess the folks will get the government they vote for, and if this is what they want, I can’t really object to it. I just miss being able to dive there and keep seeing the date moved out.

 

[tkaelin]

Reading all the threads about when a dive destination will open and what will be required to get in, I am not reading posts expressing any concern about getting back home. The new requirement of having to take a test 3 days before returning to the US and having a negative test to present to the airlines prior to boarding on your US return flight doesn't receive much mention as a concern.

Maybe its just me. I am not prepared at the moment of taking the chance of a positive test or not getting the test or results in time and being refused boarding for my return flight or worse escorted away to an island quarantine center for who knows how long and at what expense. The few comments I have read on the issue seem to brush it off as well I will just get a couple more weeks of diving and vacation. Not sure that will be the case.

 

[mi000ke]

Reading all the threads about when a dive destination will open and what will be required to get in, I am not reading posts expressing any concern about getting back home. The new requirement of having to take a test 3 days before returning to the US and having a negative test to present to the airlines prior to boarding on your US return flight doesn't receive much mention as a concern.

Maybe its just me. I am not prepared at the moment of taking the chance of a positive test or not getting the test or results in time and being refused boarding for my return flight or worse escorted away to an island quarantine center for who knows how long and at what expense. The few comments I have read on the issue seem to brush it off as well I will just get a couple more weeks of diving and vacation. Not sure that will be the case.

I suppose that's the benefit of coming to the Cayman Islands, as we have had no known community spread of Covid or any local cases for over 9 months. Anyone who has tested positive coming into the island - either returning citizens/residents or workers - must quarantine until testing negative (and quarantine is closely monitored here). And the test results are typically available within 24 hours. So if you can get in (and currently you have to be a citizen, permanent resident, or property owner, or related to one of those), there should be no problem getting out. You just have to be willing to quarantine for 10 days coming in even if you are vaccinated and test negative.

We know several couples who have come here to dive, spent two weeks in quarantine, and then two weeks or whatever diving. The folks who came down were able to use the quarantine time to work remotely, so it all worked out pretty well - as they would be doing about the same thing for those two weeks at home.

 

[mi000ke]

Per the Premier at the latest press briefing on March 10, the vaccination target for Cayman removing the quarantine for those visitors who have 1) received their last vaccination shot at least two weeks prior to travel, 2) had a negative test result within 72 hours of their travel, and 3) tested negative on arrival is now "70-80% of the total population" being vaccinated - which was later clarified in the briefing as 80%. The Premier also implied that at that point, anyone who wanted to come to Cayman could do so. (Currently you have to be a citizen, resident, property owner, close relative of one of those - or connected).

The exact percent target still seems to be an open issue, as well as what constitutes "the total population." If children are included in total population, then achieving the 80% target will be difficult under any circumstances (We are currently at almost 40% of total population, and at over 90% of over-60s). They did say that they are planning to lower the age of vaccine eligibility from 16 to 12 years old.

(Btw, having hit the 90% target for us old folks, the quarantine period was reduced to 10 days as of yesterday.)

Cayman will have enough vaccine on hand by April 7 to vaccinate every adult in the country, and the premier suggested it would be early May before they could all be administered, assuming everyone was willing to get vaccinated. I know many folks here who are hesitant to get the jab, however.

When asked later by one of the press about some specifics on border opening, the Premier replied that there are "some months" before they would have to resolve the issue.

The other factor to consider is that Cayman is having an election April 14, and the current administration seems more amenable to opening that the opposition. So opening day will probably also depend on which party or coalition ends up controlling the legislative assembly.

And finally, the latest rumor going around with some of our local friends was a June 5 opening. I don't give that much credence.

Sooo.... putting it all together, I would not expect to see the quarantine removed until sometime this summer.

This article published this morning comes to about the same conclusion:

https://www.caymancompass.com/2021/03/24/when-are-enough-people-vaccinated-to-reopen-caymans-borders/

 

[jdcpa]

McTaggert last night did clear up that the 75-80% goal is the adult population only.

At 44% vaccinated currently, that would mean, based upon recent vaccination rates, the goal would be hit in May.

I have my doubts they will ever hit that goal due to the reluctance of younger adults.

We will see.