Jersey restricts Guernsey arrivals

Guernsey has been upgraded to amber on Jersey’s travel restrictions list due to the confirmed presence of a variant of coronavirus here.

The change came into force early on Saturday.

The self-isolation period ends with a negative test on day five.

Arrivals from anywhere else are classed as red and must isolate until they receive a negative test on day 10.

Jersey’s deputy medical officer of health, Dr Ivan Muscat, would not say if any new variants had been found there.

Guernsey’s director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said at the regular briefing on 8 January that a family of four who were isolating together had been identified as having been infected by the variant, which has led to cases growing quickly in the UK as it is much easier to transmit.

At the time the tightening of restrictions was announced by Jersey on Friday evening, a week after Dr Brink’s announcement, Guernsey had eight active cases, all in self-isolation. There was one new case on Friday, an inbound traveller, but one person had recovered. As of yesterday, there were still eight known active cases.

Jersey had 241 live cases, with seven new ones as of yesterday afternoon. Jersey also had six people in hospital with Covid-19, while Guernsey had none.

Two more people died in Jersey on Friday, bringing the total to 30 in the second wave and 62 in total.

Sixteen people have died in Guernsey, 13 confirmed and three presumed to be from Covid-19, but none in the second wave.

Jersey’s Health minister, Deputy Richard Renouf, said: ‘These are precautionary measures based on scientific advice which we hope will prevent any new variants from entering the island community.

‘We will not be closing our borders due to our need to send islanders to the UK for health reasons and to allow to return home.

‘We are continuing to work with the UK to establish whether Jersey has any new variants, and we will be monitoring the situation closely.’