Leaving islanders stranded ‘not an option for now’
THE Bailiwick has tightened its border restrictions, but has stopped short of following dozens of other countries which have banned UK arrivals.
France, Sweden, Denmark, India, Iran, Canada, and Saudi Arabia are among the countries which have shut their borders to the UK after the discovery of a new, more infectious Covid-19 strain.
It is thought to be 70% more contagious than the earlier strain, but there is no evidence that it is more lethal.
It was explained in yesterday’s Covid-19 press conference that suspending UK flights and sailings to the Bailiwick was not considered necessary at this stage.
Instead, other measures, such as increasing the take-up of day 13 testing on travellers, were a ‘proportionate and reasonable’ approach.
Dr Nicola Brink, the Director of Public Health, said that stringent border restrictions had served the island well.
‘We’ve always had a more conservative border regimen and we’ve put testing on top of it, so this will be kept carefully under review.
‘More data is coming out about this variant all the time, we’ll get more information from Porton Down and some of the big laboratories that are doing very detailed research on it.
‘I attended a meeting yesterday afternoon (Monday) and one of the things that was really highlighted was the stringent need to adhere to the non-pharmaceutical interventions and that’ll be the best first line protection for us.’
Paul Whitfield, the States chief executive, said that leaving Guernsey people stranded abroad was not an option right now.
‘We’re continuously looking in front of ourselves, in case we needed to apply a change or a restriction.
‘But obviously if we had normally resident people, residents of Guernsey, we wouldn’t abandon them off-island, and as much as we saw at the beginning of this crisis we then looked to see how we would repatriate those that had gone away for Christmas and do so in a safe way.’
In order to stop the mutated Covid-19 gaining a foothold in Guernsey, the need for vigilance was stressed frequently throughout the press conference.
Mr Whitfield warned people ‘don’t gamble’ and Deputy Al Brouard, the president of Health & Social Care, said it was vital that travellers followed the rules.
‘We’ve got a lot of people from our community who are off-island at the moment, they will be coming back over the next few weeks, it’s really critical for us and the whole community that when they do so, they do so very carefully and we have to encourage them when they come back to follow all the guidelines.
The situation was described as fluid and under constant review.
. Jersey has also toughened up its border restrictions in response to the virus mutation.
Travellers from the UK have to stay in isolation until giving a negative test on day 10.
It is also closing non-essential shops from 6pm on Christmas Eve.
In the Isle of Man, a raft of new measures have been brought in, including day one and day 13 testing for returning residents and tightening up who will be exempt. Closing the border was ruled out.
