Two-day delay, but islands are still moving to Phase 5c
GUERNSEY will move to phase 5c of the easing of lockdown restrictions on Wednesday, two days later than planned in spite of a new outbreak of cases, Deputy Peter Ferbrache announced yesterday.
The Civil Contingencies Authority chairman said it would proceed in the way that was announced previously, with testing on arrival for the vast majority of people coming into the Bailiwick and countries split into four categories.
Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said people arriving will be able to administer a Covid-19 test on themselves when they arrive at the airport or harbour, but these will be done under supervision to make sure they are done correctly.
Videos and information will be available to help people through the process.
Should anyone be unsure, they will be referred to a welcome team who will be able to help.
States chief executive Paul Whitfield said a new web portal, the Travel Tracker, was being made available from Monday on the covid19.gov.gg website.
He said everybody will be expected to provide information about travel plans, contact history and where they will be self-isolating.
To speed up their travel plans, ideally this would be done before travelling, but if it was not then it would have to be completed on arrival.
On completion, the tracker will tell the user the category of the country from which they will be travelling, which is linked to the prevalence of the virus in that country.
On arrival in Guernsey, that information must be given to the staff at the ports who will direct travellers to the testing booths.
The country categories
. 1, Countries and regions where there is no requirement for any travel restrictions or testing, currently just the Isle of Man.
. 2, Countries with a Covid prevalence rate of fewer than 30 cases per 100,000 for seven days. Anyone arriving from there would be tested on arrival, but will be required to self-isolate only until the result of that test comes back, providing it is negative. Currently, none fall into this category.
. 3, Countries with a prevalence rate of between 30 and 100 cases per 100,000 of population. Travellers from these will also have a test on arrival, but remain in self-isolation until day seven even if that is negative when they will have another test. If that is also negative they will be subject to ‘enhanced passive follow-up’ until the 14th day after their arrival.
. 4, Countries with more than 100 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people for seven consecutive days. Arrivals will take a test on arrival followed by 14 days of self-isolation. Currently this includes all of the UK, with the exception of a few regions in Scotland.
