Cayman possible border reopening without quarantine by April or May!

[Joneill]

Anyone that puts money down at a wishy washy places like the Caymens is a fool.

To be honest I wouldn't plan any trips to any destination that isn't currently open at the time you are putting money down.

It is a lot easier to say "We aren't going to open on schedule," than it is to say "We are closing back down."

Agreed - April 2022 trip was a reschedule from something booked pre-Covid and moved twice already. I definitely wouldn’t book anything new there now!

 

[Kaneda13]

A trip there in November was going to be my first Dive focused holiday, and my first trip out of the country, not turning out to look so good.

 

[queennyac]

A trip there in November was going to be my first Dive focused holiday, and my first trip out of the country, not turning out to look so good.

.....why not join me and some of my friends on the Juliet in St. Croix in January??? LMK if interested and I can send you more info.....my email is queennyac@aol.com

 

[Kaneda13]

Just got the email from my dive shop, they have officially killed the trip. Meeting next week to see what the options are. At this point I'm inclined to pass on anything Caymans, left a bad taste.

 

[tkaelin]

The Clearly Cayman folks just said that in light of the recent annoucment it would be 2/22 at the earliest that any of their Cayman resorts would be open and reminded everyone of their new resort on South Caicos.

 

[Alucard]

Honestly, this fits with the super-conservative nature of the island. Right now they say they don't even know how the community spread happened, and that has to be worrying for them. My guess is that someone broke quarantine and spread it. I'm not surprised.

I don't know what they expected - let's assume that their goal of 80% vaccinated was reached and they opened - they would instantly have cases - what would they have done? Shut right back down again? This feels like they weren't really prepared for what an opening without quarantine was going to look like, based on this.

I agree that they are going to need to come up with a plan of what their post-pandemic world is going to look like, because it is obviously here to stay in some form or another. Can they keep quarantine in place indefinitely and as a result completely shut down the tourism business on the island? Is that what their citizens want? Because if they aren't they are going to need to come up with a far better plan with a lot better contingencies built in.

 

[AggieDiver]

To be honest, the tourism and hospitality industry in the Caymans is heavily dominated by ex-pats and has alot of foreign ownership. I am not sure that having the tourism industry down actually makes that big of a difference to a huge swath of the cayman citizens. Sure, there are some people hurt by it, but for the citizens, the govt has been giving them some relief is my understanding.

 

[DavidFL]

I have lost track. So what Phase are they currently on and now will be on until the end of the year?

They were in Phase 3 within which securely verified vaccinated travelers were required to quarantine for 5 days. In addition to NOT moving to the next phase that would have removed that quarantine requirement, the informal news article says they will increase the quarantine to 7 days for securely verified travelers, and re-institute their hardware/software implementation to geotag the quarantined vaccinated travelers (all apparently based on a government local news briefing on Tuesday).

At this point what we have for reference is local press reports. The official guidance that I can find has not yet been updated, except for some kind of September 14 "kick the can (with the current regulations/laws) down the road a month" resolution while they rewrite stuff.

Another informal reference says that only British Airways and Cayman Airways are operating international flights, and there will be some kind of "slot" system limit for airlines when/if they do move to the next Phase. Delta flat out cancelled their flights to Grand Cayman in December a couple of weeks ago.

 

[tkaelin]

Thanks. And I believe securely verified means you received your vaccination in either gc or Great Britain.

 

[Damselfish]

Thanks. And I believe securely verified means you received your vaccination in either gc or Great Britain.

Their list includes things from some N American sources. I have a Smart health QR code from one of them. Not that it helps everyone, or much of anyone at this point.
https://www.gov.ky/news/press-relea...-of-securely-verifiable-vaccination-records-#