Guernsey Press

Less than half of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Guernsey had underlying health condition

MORE information has been released by Public Health on the 252 individuals who tested positive for Covid-19 this year.

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The Director of Public Health, Dr Nicola Brink. (Picture by Sophie Rabey, 28427224)

The first case of Covid-19 in Guernsey was confirmed on 9 March 2020, with the last being identified on 30 April 2020.

No new cases have been identified since.

Of the 252 positive cases, 104 cases (41%) had an underlying condition, 120 cases (48%) did not and the underlying health status of the remaining 28 cases (11%) is unknown.

Between 1 March and 31 May there were 34 hospital admissions where the patient had tested positive for Covid-19.

These admissions related to 28 individuals as six people were admitted twice. None of those admitted to hospital required intensive care treatment.

Of the 13 reported Covid-19 deaths which all occurred between 30 March 2020 and 14 April 2020, five were male and eight were female.

All were over the age of 80, with six deaths between 80-89-year-olds and seven deaths of people over 90.

Ten deaths occurred in residential or nursing homes or extra care housing with three occurring in hospital.

A spokesperson for the States of Guernsey said at this stage, it is not possible to provide any further information on any underlying conditions or secondary causes of death as the clinical data has not been coded so as to allow analysis.

Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said data has always been shared with islanders, because it does not belong to Public Health, it belongs to the whole community.

'Of course, we have to balance that against the privacy of individuals and their families, and we have to be sure the data is robust.'

While Public Health is not seeing new cases of the virus confirmed at the moment in the Bailiwick, they continue to look back at the positive Covid-19 cases they have seen and look at what more we be learnt and what other information can be released publicly.

'We are also constantly assessing new studies from around the world to improve our understanding of the virus,' she said.