GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands— An American medical student and her local boyfriend have been jailed in the Cayman Islands for breaching COVID-19 restrictions.

The Cayman Compass reported that Skylar Mack, 18, and Vanjae Ramgeet, 24 were taken into custody yesterday to begin their four-month prison sentences for breaching mandatory quarantine, after the government successfully appealed a magistrate’s court judgment that had imposed community service and the cost of isolation accommodation.

The judge in the appeal delivered the revised sentence, setting aside the previous judgment, which had imposed a fine and community service.

The judge found that “the gravity of the breach was such that the only appropriate sentence would have been one of immediate imprisonment”, the Cayman Compass reported.

The charge stemmed from an incident in November, when Mack attended a crowded jet-ski event in which Ramgeet was participating, despite only having arrived on the island two days prior to the breach.

She had been required to self-isolate for 14 days, but was said to have interacted with the public for more than seven hours. When police arrived at the event, she was not wearing a mask and was not practising social distancing, the Cayman Compass reported.

The day before the breach, the island’s latest COVID-19-suppression regulations had taken effect, which increased the penalties for violating quarantine protocols.

Under the previous regulations, a sentence of up to one-year imprisonment and/or a fine of $1,000 could be imposed for a breach of the quarantine requirements. The new regulations increased the sentence to up to two years imprisonment, and/or a fine of up to $10,000, the Cayman Compass reported.

Mack, a medical student at the University of Georgia, will be required to leave Cayman upon completion of her sentence, and the court has recommended that she not be allowed to re-enter the country as long as the borders remain closed.

Cayman News Service also reported that the judge said that Mack had committed a planned, selfish act and there was no alternative to a custodial sentence.

The court also noted that she had complained about her iMsafe (geotagging) wristband being too tight and government officials had gone to her isolation residence and re-fitted it, enabling her to slip it off and attend the Jet Ski competition, which resulted in four families having to go into isolation after the event.