COVID-19 pandemic in the Cayman Islands
On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.[9] On 12 March 2020, a 68-year-old Italian man in critical condition, who was transferred from the cruise ship Costa Luminosa to a hospital in the Cayman Islands on 29 February due to heart issues, was announced as the first confirmed coronavirus case.The person was a resident of the Cayman Islands who had tested positive after returning from travelling abroad and remained in isolation for some time.[15] On 17 December 2020, Mercer University pre-med student Skylar Mack, 18 years old, of Loganville, Georgia, in the United States, and her boyfriend Vanjae Ramgeet, 24 years old, of the Cayman Islands, were sentenced to four months in prison for her violating the island's mandatory two-week quarantine COVID-19 restriction two days after arriving from the United States, and for him aiding and abetting her.[18][17] Judge Roger Chapple said during their sentencing that the decision to violate safety measures was born of "selfishness and arrogance," and that Mack spent seven hours in public at a crowded event without a face mask or social distancing.