The below remarks are as delivered by Minister Seymour during a press briefing on Monday, 30 March 2020.

Good afternoon everyone in the Cayman Islands.

We continue to monitor the coronavirus situation daily and its devastating impact on populations in nearly every region of the world. The global numbers of this pandemic highlighted by the Premier continue to be alarming. This country is being proactive so that we can keep our numbers as low as possible.

Yesterday I provided an overview of the Health Services Authority’s COVID-19 preparedness plan and the measures their leadership and staff are putting in place. Today, as Minister of Health, I’d like to highlight how pleased I am with the collaborative efforts taking place between the private sector and the Health Services Authority. We are developing a coordinated strategy to enhance our response to contain community spread of the coronavirus and to effectively manage any patients who are infected. We recognize that our fight against this disease is not the responsibility of one, but the whole health care provider community.

That said, I would like to use this opportunity today to recognize a group of individuals who are leading the efforts to not only combat the virus in their capacity as researchers but also to those on the frontline of this pandemic.

I am pleased to see the involvement of physician leaders in the NEOC which includes representatives from the private sector, all whom are driving discussions on key policy issues to protect the health of the people of the Cayman Islands. Having such involvement from various providers shows they are all working for the same mission…to contain and eliminate the spread of COVID-19.

I also attended a physician’s meeting at the HAS which brought together the public and private sector and was impressed by the level of teamwork between them and the willingness to work together in the interest of the people of these islands. I also want to note that this was a few weeks ago before the heightened restrictions on gatherings were in place, but I can assure you, even then, everyone in the room was practicing proper social distancing.

When we look at our country’s facilities as a whole, we have three hospitals. Our bed capacity across these facilities is 246 with approximately 32 ventilators. Those numbers will be expanded with further orders of equipment and PPE arriving this week. 

It was mentioned last week that other locations are being reviewed as possible back up sites should we have a large surge of positive COVID patients needing hospital management. We are seeing this happen around the world, where healthcare facilities are at full capacity and are resorting to back up space. We hope that due to the regulations that have been put into place by our Government that Cayman will not get to that point, but we must have plans in place.

And if we get to that point…it will need to be all hands on deck. We have already seen private physicians teaming up with HAS as well as assisting in different areas of our current initiatives, for instance, private doctors checking in on all our university students whom are self-isolating in the hotel to ensure they are well and not developing symptoms.

Part of our strategy to contain the spread of the virus is to identify and isolate cases early. This requires the public to be clear on what symptoms to look out for and when to step forward to HAS for testing. To further support this effort, today we are announcing the launch of an online self-assessment tool open to the public.

The tool, which is now live on www.gov.ky/coronavirus aims to provide a quick alternative to the flu hotlines and hopefully will encourage those who may be unsure if they have coronavirus symptoms the chance to quickly check and take the necessary action.

The tool begins by asking for your symptoms and then it takes the public through a series of questions to determine whether you should seek further medical assessment, all in less than 5 minutes.

We understand that the isolation and shelter in place measures can leave the public feeling limited and we all need a welcome distraction from the news from time to time. I am therefore excited to also announce, as Minister for Culture, the launch of a jingle competition to bring out creativity in the time of coronavirus.

Throughout history, we have seen music used to elicit a much-needed smile and indeed feelings of hope in the midst of a serious situation.

The collection of selected jingles will help to connect the Cayman Islands Government with the local community in a creative and uplifting way as we experience the challenges around the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are four categories for jingle submissions and any genre is permitted.

A payment of CI$1,200 will be offered for each selected jingle. The deadline for submission is Monday, 6 April at 5pm. More information, including how to submit your entry is available at www.gov.ky/coroanvirus. The public are asked to contact [email protected] if they have additional questions.

Finally, in closing, every year the 30^th of March is observed as Doctors Day and I want to recognize the tremendous work of the medical community here in Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman and the good work they do year-round to care for us and our families. Today we pause to honour our dedicated physicians who work tirelessly for the patients who entrust them with their health care.

Today on Doctors Day, the doctors of the Cayman Islands have joined together with the Governor, Premier, Cabinet and myself in making a single prescription for the people of the Cayman Islands – stay home to save lives.