Minister
for Health, Hon. Dwayne Seymour gave an update on Health Service
Authority’s response to COVID-19, at the press conference on
Sunday, 29 March 2020.

Minister
Seymour’s full statement follows.

“As
the national healthcare system of the Cayman Islands, the Health
Services Authority has the primary role of ensuring the health and
well-being of the nation, our preparedness and response in this
global public health emergency.

Today
I want to provide a brief update on the plans and activities being
undertaken at the HSA in terms of their planning and preparedness,
resources and capabilities to ensure sustainability of the healthcare
delivery system in the event of widespread community transmission in
the Cayman Islands.

The
stringent measures already announced by the Premier and the
Government along with the plans being implemented by the National
Emergency Operations Centre have made a significant impact in our
mitigation and containment efforts and placed the Cayman Islands
ahead of other regions in the fight against this pandemic.

The
HSA is taking action to not only keep our community safe but to
provide an effective and sustained response to any significant
community spread and is taking all necessary steps in order to be
prepared for the worst case scenario.

1. 
   HSA
   has developed a COVID-19 Action Plan which sets out a comprehensive
   step by step approach to ensure effective coordination of resources,
   response and clinical outcomes
   
   
2. 
   Established
   a multi-disciplinary taskforce of clinicians (physicians, nurses,
   allied health professionals) from a broad range of specialties who
   meet daily to review and monitor global trends, relevant clinical
   data and guidance, develop best practices, policies and procedures
   and strategies for patient management and effective clinical
   decision making.
   
   
3. 
   A
   COVID-19 hospital operations team – with representation from
   across the organization, including clinical, operational, finance,
   human resources, supply chain management, facilities which also
   meets daily bringing together the clinical and operational
   perspective to drive a coordinated response plan to ensure our
   operations are aligned with efficient clinical delivery. This
   includes representation from the Sister Islands.
   

Through
the work of these teams we have implemented a range of robust
activities which have been very effective at containing community
spread. These include:

1. 
   The
   Flu Hotline which has been very effective and we continue to
   encourage people with flu symptoms to contact the flu hotline at
   1-800-534-8600 or 947-3077 or email flu@hsa.ky.
   Medical professions are answering your calls and will either direct
   you to stay home or will direct you to the Flu Clinic. It is
   important that persons call the hotline first before showing up at
   the Flu Clinic, as this is important in the event you are a
   suspected COVID case. Since the hotline started on March 15 the
   team has handled 1,434 calls, with the lowest record volume of calls
   yesterday at 50. The Flu Hotline also handles calls from the Sister
   Islands.
   
   
2. 
   The
   dedicated Flu Clinic which we believe is among the significant
   initiatives at containment started on March 16 is now open 8:00 a.m.
   – 4:00- p.m. seven days per week in Grand Cayman and Monday to
   Friday in Cayman Brac at the Aston Rutty Centre. Since it commenced
   the clinic has seen 228 patients in Grand ad 19 in the Brac. With
   dedicated flu clinics, we have been able to control the movement and
   treatment of patients with flu symptoms in the appropriate clinical
   setting.
   
   
3. 
   The
   focus has been on our testing capabilities so I want to reassure you
   that HSA has PCR testing kits on hand, with the 480 received
   yesterday, we now have 520 and are expecting more from the UK this
   week.
   
4. Doctors
   Hospital is also working to secure the ability to do local testing
   and will keep you updated once this is all in place so that will add
   to the islands testing capacity when that comes on stream.
   
5. We
   also want to reassure the public that HSA has sufficient quantities
   of the various types of PPE, however we are sourcing additional
   supplies in the event our numbers increase as projected from what is
   happening globally.
   
   Gloves
   – 219,000 on hand with 938,000 on order
   Surgical
   Masks – over 106,000 on hand with 83,000 on order
   N95
   masks – over 3,500 on hand with over 300,000 on order
   Isolation
   gowns – over 2,000 on hand with 71,000 on order
   Face
   shields with and without masks – 360 on hand, 52,000 on order
   Goggles
   - 500 on hand with over 5,000 on order
   
   
6. Beyond
   those initial preparedness activities and as we monitor the global
   situation and the challenges of other countries and healthcare
   systems our priority is on ensuring the availability of resources
   and to keep healthcare workers safe as they care for the public.
   
   

Accidents
like we witnessed yesterday with the young man from Bodden Town and
West Bay are so tragic.  

Everything
we are doing now is for your protection and survival. It is so
important that we are all following the curfew regulations and
shelter in place orders at this time. 

I am
sending prayers up for the young men, their families and the entire
community. Let's stay home to save lives.”