WATCH: ‘HSC is in driving seat when it comes to easing lockdown’
GUERNSEY’S exit strategy from the lockdown was drawn up by health officials, who have said that they also listened widely to business leaders.
The hospitality industry is expected to be worst hit as the island emerges from the crisis, and the States is looking at whether a bespoke package could be created so the sector is not killed off forever.
Under the exit document, the airport could potentially be open in mid-August, but only for flights within the Channel Islands.
A very tentative date around mid-September is likely to be the earliest that non-essential flights from the UK and Europe will be allowed.
However, the journey through all the different stages of the strategy depends entirely on the health data.
The president of Health & Social Care, Deputy Heidi Soulsby, called the exit strategy ‘cautious and conservative’ because she is determined not to give the virus a second chance.
The strategy was announced alongside a sobering analysis which showed that without any health interventions Covid-19 would have infected 50,000 Bailiwick residents and killed 1,800.
Damage to the economy caused by the lockdown is being assessed, and an initial survey of more than 5,000 islanders has revealed that 80% of employed people have been able to continue working from home, either fully or partially.
The results are significantly worse for self-employed people, more than half of those respondents said they had been unable to work completely.
The chair of the Civil Contingencies Authority, Gavin St Pier, explained who was calling the shots in the creation of the exit strategy.
‘The CCA is an emergency lawmaker and it has empowered Health & Social Care to make certain directions, so the decision-maker in much of this is actually HSC.
‘They are taking input from a number of different sources, including dialogue with other committees like Economic Development.
‘We are also through the offices of the States naturally having dialogue with a whole range of different industries.’
The reality on opening borders is that it is partly out of Guernsey’s hands, and it depends on how other jurisdictions manage their path out of the crisis.
Dialogue is ongoing, and Deputy St Pier said normal travel was months away.
‘We could decide to open our borders tomorrow, although clearly we’re not going to, but we could. The reality is there wouldn’t be anyone travelling because there aren’t any flights, half the airports are closed, nobody else is going to want to travel here anyway, so I think it’s one of those things where it’s quite difficult to predict how this is going to evolve.’
Another problem is that the lockdown may have been too successful and people will be fearful to go back to workplaces, shops and public venues.
The hope is that the new-found confidence in politicians will help persuade people to leave their homes when the time is right.
