WATCH: Almost 1,500 Covid-19 tests find 191 cases
ACROSS two care homes, 29 residents and 31 staff members have tested positive for Covid-19.
Two care homes have been affected by Covid-19. One has had 18 staff members and 16 residents test positive.
'Although we have tested everyone in that care home, we plan to re-test everyone over the next few days,' director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said.
'The second care home has 13 residents and 13 staff that are Covid-19 positive.'
Appropriate PPE is available to those care homes.
Dr Brink said these numbers show how vulnerable these individuals are and was why the extremely difficult decision was made to stop care home, hospital and hospice visits.
In an update about the island's coronavirus situation at a press briefing this afternoon, Dr Brink said just under 1,500 people have been tested.
This has found 191 positive cases of Covid-19.
'Encouragingly, 40 people have recovered completely,' she said. 'And five people [have it] in hospital, none of which are in intensive care.'
To look after particularly vulnerable individuals, such as those with underlying health conditions or weak immune systems, they must be completely shielded from what is going on - something Dr Brink believed would be necessary for around three months.
'If anyone feels like they fall into a shielding criteria [available on gov.gg/coronavirus] and have not received a letter, please do contact your GP practice.
'We are very anxious that those people get the appropriate advice.'
She said testing is progressing well, with two or three runs a day, finishing at about 10pm each evening.
Updated figures are then published every morning on gov.gg.
The inclusion of people who are presumed to have died from a Covid-19 related death in the figures aims to make the data as comprehensive as possible.
Contract tracing is progressing well and is, again, being done in a more conservative way than in the UK. Contact tracing begins with all interaction 24 hours prior to the patient becoming symptomatic.
'When we were first contact tracing, we had about 20 people per case that needed to be followed up with, now that number has fallen to about five,' Dr Brink said.
