News

Cayman’s ability to sustain significant COVID 19 testing was given a boost over the last two days with the arrival of 52,000 swabs which are used to collect samples. A further 100,000 swabs are also due to arrive in Cayman shortly. Like all supplies connected to the testing process, swabs are in short supply globally.    

The operation to supply the swabs was masterminded by the Dart Logistics team led by Chris Duggan, Gary Gibbs and Simon Fenn. The supplies came from a manufacturer in China and were shipped to Cayman from Shenzen in Southern China. The Governor’s Office team worked with Dart and the British Consulate General in Guangzhou to help facilitate the release of the consignment from China.

Governor Martyn Roper commented: “Testing remains a vital objective for government and a key part of our strategy to open-up the economy whilst keeping everyone in Cayman safe.  The process and logistics of ensuring we can do this are challenging.  We have had great successes with procuring the testing kits from Korea, extraction kits from the USA and UK and now this new order of swabs which are absolutely vital. The battle continues however to ensure that our labs receive other vital supplies. My office and the HSA continue to work closely on this endeavour and we will also now use the logistics expertise of the new Military Assistance Team that arrived on Tuesday to support the effort. I would like to thank Chris Duggan and the excellent team at Dart for this achievement”.

Chris Duggan said: “Given these unprecedented times, it is absolutely vital for the public and private sectors to engage collaboratively in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. We were very happy to be able to leverage our contacts and resources to facilitate the procurement of these swabs, and it was the collective efforts of the Dart team, and the teams at the HSA and the Governor’s office that enabled us to successfully get them to Cayman.  We look forward to continuing to work with both public and private sector partners as we fight the pandemic and actively support the relief and recovery efforts”.