15% of Guernsey people have travelled off-island since Covid

The October survey involved online questions put to 3,171 people across the three Crown Dependencies.

It revealed that Guernsey and the Isle of Man’s more hardline approach to controlling Covid-19, which has seen strict travel restrictions virtually wipe out the virus in both islands, is still proving popular with islanders.

Around 80% of people in Guernsey and the Isle of Man agree with their island’s strategy, compared to 42% in Jersey. Jersey is currently coping with 200 cases and there are warnings the island could be forced to go back into lockdown if numbers do not fall.

Travel and a less restrictive self-isolation regime has been blamed for Jersey’s high number of cases.

The survey found that a third of Jersey people had travelled off-island since the outbreak of Covid-19. This compares with 15% of Guernsey people and 17% on the Isle of Man.

But just a quarter of Jersey people said they were comfortable making non-essential trips currently.

This is still higher than the other islands, where 12% of Guernsey people would be comfortable travelling and 14% of Manx islanders.

Jersey people have also been hit harder in the pocket than the other islanders, with nearly a quarter of Jersey people seeing a reduction in their income.

This compares with 20% in the Isle of Man and 17% in Guernsey.

One thing the islands all agree in is that it has been a difficult year, with just over a third of people rating their life satisfaction as eight or more out 10.

Around a quarter of people said they experienced a moderate or large amount of stress/anxiety in the week prior to the survey.

Just under half of these said news about Covid-19 was a cause.

Those in Jersey are slightly more likely than those in Guernsey or the Isle of Man to say that in the last week they have not felt optimistic about the future, lacked companionship and experienced a large amount of stress.