CAYMAN: Premier: 1 Sept. border reopening unlikely. Things are improving here in the U.S., and in Europe, but South and Central America are exploding with new cases.

And Cayman’s strategy — while sensible for an island in many ways — has a problem, correctly identified by the Premier: “I mean, if the virus continues to rage around us, how can we possibly open our borders and invite it to come after all the efforts we’ve made to keep it under control here.”

So if the virus vanishes over the summer on its own (possible, but how likely?) or if there’s an effective and available vaccine within 6 months (possible, but how likely?) then they can reopen safely. But if not, then they’re going to probably have to reopen anyway, and experience deaths and sickness on top of the losses from being locked down. Other, bigger islands, like New Zealand and Australia, face a similar problem.