Statement by Governor Martyn Roper on the National COVID-19 Vaccination Plan, 10 December, 2020

I am grateful to the Premier for his statement in Parliament setting out Cayman’s plans for vaccinating our people and in doing so protecting our most vulnerable and elderly from this virus.

The UK fully is committed to supplying vaccines to the Overseas Territories.  Cayman, Bermuda and Gibraltar will receive Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine because they have the necessary very low temperature cold storage facilities. Other OTs likely to get AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine as much easier logistically.

The vaccination programme in UK began on Tuesday. About 70 hospital hubs across the UK are giving the Pfizer/BioNTech jab to the over-80s and some health and care staff. Many thousands of people have already received it.

The UK is likely to send first batch to Cayman in early January (first BA flight is 5 January). There will be enough to vaccinate many thousands of people initially and once we have shown that logistics here work and that the vaccine can be rolled out effectively, the UK will send far more – relatively quickly after the first batch.

I am willing to take the vaccine myself as soon as I am invited to do so and I encourage everyone to do the same. In this way we can protect our population and get back to normal life.

Returning travellers remain our greatest risk in managing Covid. I urge everyone who returns to our Islands to act responsibly in following the isolation and quarantine requirements. That is the best way to protect themselves and everyone on our Islands, particularly our elderly and most vulnerable. Please show CaymanKind and fully comply with our laws and guidance.