Coronavirus: ‘Pubs and clubs might need to shut’

The considerations being made are said to be on the back of the changes in policy, the current delays in testing and the uncertainty over whether the island has community seeding.

HSC president Heidi Soulsby said it was because of these that they were looking at being more cautious by ensuring that they are matching that caution with the position that the island is in at the moment.

‘We need to think about wider social gatherings and what other more precautionary measures we need to take,’ said Deputy Soulsby.

‘We have been taking a very cautious approach that has held us in good stead until now.

‘The importance of testing, testing, testing – if we haven’t got that testing and the results, we have to be even more cautious and so that is leading us to have considerations in terms of whether pubs, clubs should remain open and also more stricter social distancing measures.’

It remains to be seen what plans they are hoping to instigate.

‘We haven’t made those decisions now,’ she added.

‘There is further work being done as we speak to assess quite what we need to do and at the same time we know we want to keep the island running as normally as we can, but we need to make sure that we can pick out those areas of greatest risk that could impact on greater community seeding.’

Guernsey’s senior politician Deputy Gavin St Pier confirmed they were currently deliberating on what advice and measures to give.

‘It is something that is under active consideration, no decisions have been made but it is something that is being considered,’ he said.

‘We’ll be looking at whether does it give us cause to change the social distancing advice and if so how does it impact on certain locations and that’s something again which needs to be given time to allow proper advice to be worked out so that decisions can be made.’

More information on what these further measures will be has been scheduled for Friday.