As France moved to the UK’s 14-day quarantine list today, the island has given more detail to travellers arriving on its shores.
Currently only travellers arriving from a Group B country, which included all of the UK at time of going to print, are eligible for testing on day seven of their self-isolation.
Those travellers can leave self-isolation if that test is negative, while also observing the rules of passive follow-up, which includes a restriction on travel to Alderney, until 14 days after arrival.
However, if the prevalence of infection rises for certain regions within that country, this could affect whether they would be classed as still being within Group B or moved to Group A, which requires self-isolation for 14 days.
Dr Nicola Brink said there was potential for changes within the categorisation of countries.
‘We are looking at regional variations,’ she said.
‘If England went above a certain level we’d consider regional variations, such as the areas that are in lockdown, and likewise for France if practical for us to do.
‘This is something we would start off looking at for our nearest neighbours and perhaps other common destinations that islanders go to.
‘It all depends on what information we can get, the decision-making to categorise a country depends on the prevalence of infection in the country and whether that’s accessible to us.
‘The second thing is the testing rates, because if you don’t test you won’t find the virus, and whether there are any other Public Health concerns.’
Leicester was placed into a local lockdown as a result of a rise in coronavirus cases in the area. Since then other areas have also been placed in local lockdown, including Greater Manchester and Preston.
Dr Brink added that there were also other factors involved before a re-categorisation would occur, such as a yo-yoing of figures.
‘We look at the trend within a country. Our cut-off for Group B is 30 cases per 100,000. If France goes above 30 cases per 100,000 and is at that level for seven consecutive days, they would change,’ she said.
‘We want to stop countries going just above or just below the 30 cases per 100,000 mark, we don’t want to over-trigger, so we’ll look at France for the next seven consecutive days and see what the trend is.
‘If, for example, a country had a single large outbreak that was contained that increased their prevalence figures we might not change the categorisation, but if the whole country was at that level, we might consider it differently.’
Between 6 and 12 August, new cases in France rose to 18.1 per 100,000, up from 13.1 for the previous seven days.
France is currently on the Bailiwick’s Group B travel list.
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