Why Coronavirus in the Cayman Islands will be More than a Headache for Fund Managers
14 March, 2020
As the first COVID-19 death is reported in the Cayman Islands, Matthew Feargrieve explains why the presence of the coronavirus in the world’s largest offshore financial centre could put US$trillions of assets at operational risk.
Health authorities in the Cayman Islands announced today that a 68-year old man had died of the virus. The man, believed to be an Italian national, had been taken off one of the many cruise ships that visit the islands, in February, and had been in isolation since that time. There are unconfirmed reports of other possible cases of COVID-19 presenting in the islands.
At time of writing, the Cayman government has outlawed all assemblies of more than fifty persons, and has banned all cruises and flights with the notable exceptions of travel to and from the US and the UK. The islands’ main newspaper, the Cayman Compass, was (somewhat worryingly) reporting only a few days ago on the unseasonably large number of people presenting with ‘flu-like symptoms. Health authorities may well be having to face the possibility that COVID-19 might have been present in the Cayman Islands for some time already.
