25/03/2020

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Grand Cayman is to enter lockdown to avoid further spread of Coronavirus. The night-time curfew which was imposed on Monday, has been expanded to the hours of 7pm to 5am, and will be in place for the next 10 days.

Public gatherings will be restricted to a maximum of two people, unless they are members of a core family group.

All non-essential businesses will be required to close, unless they can operate with staff working from home.

Premier Alden McLaughlin said, “Non-essential persons are required to shelter in place. That means, stay at home.”

“We are not going to allow economic considerations to kill our people,” the premier added.

“Quite frankly, it seems the message has not got through to the private sector and employers,” he said. “We have on our hands a national health emergency, capable of killing hundreds of our people.”

“Everybody is concerned about the economic consequences of the order; we are, too, but economic consequences can never be more important than lives.”

McLaughlin added, “I am coming to the view sometimes that we are going to have to bury some of our own people for this message to get through.“

“If we can get through these 10 days without significant community spread, we will have achieved a huge victory,” he said.