All nine Covid-19 deaths have been from care homes

All nine of the confirmed deaths up until now have been care home residents, as well as a further three of the presumed deaths. Only one died in hospital.

In one care home, 30 residents and 27 members of staff have tested positive for the virus and Health & Social Care has sent in its own staff to help out.

A second home has had 16 residents and 19 members of staff test positive.

Two other island care homes have been affected, but in a very minor way.

As of yesterday a total of 95 care home residents and staff had tested positive, which is 40% of the island’s total number of confirmed cases.

The highly infectious disease has not managed to pass through the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.

There has been only one case of transmission within the PEH.

Deputy Gavin St Pier, the chair of the Civil Contingencies Authority, said that care homes were being hit harder than the hospital.

‘The care homes to some extent have really been the frontline in this story for Guernsey so far in a way that perhaps we didn’t anticipate when we anticipated that the hospital would be the frontline.

‘It highlights how the care homes are treated differently as part of a whole healthcare approach in Guernsey compared to other jurisdictions, particularly the UK where it’s obvious that the care homes have just been left to get on with it, and that’s obviously a chicken which is now coming home to roost.’

Medical Director Dr Peter Rabey said the spread of the infection showed how vulnerable certain populations could be, and he stressed that HSC was doing everything it could to help.

‘I’m really proud with the way that Guernsey has dealt with the care home position. We’ve been honest about it, we’ve been doing the testing and the data is out there for people to look at.

‘We keep a really close eye on it, we will continue to do that, and it just emphasises to me the importance of those restrictions that we’ve put in place.

‘Other jurisdictions have just not taken anything like the same approach to the care homes as we have, so we have tested, and we have supported, and we have put in PPE [personal protective equipment], and we have put in staff.’

At the press conference the Director of Public Health, Dr Nicola Brink, outlined what the testing strategy was for local care homes.

‘If we’re in a cluster situation we’ll do large numbers of testing, but for individual care homes we’ll do a more targeted approach because we think clinically that’s going to be most beneficial to those residents and staff.’