Team work into night to expand testing tent

REGENCY EVENTS had a busy Sunday night doubling the size of the drive-through Covid testing centre at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital .

The drive through testing centre at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital nearly doubled in size at the weekend. Between 11pm on Sunday night and 3am Monday morning, the Estates Team provided the swabbing teams with an additional 4.5 metres of capacity by extending the testing tent. This will allow four cars to be undercover at any one time and the flow through the tent will be more efficient. (29160062)

Four staff and one from the States Estates team handled the expansion from 11pm until past 3am, so that now at least 1,000 daily swabs are possible.

Swabbing teams can now cater for four cars at once, with an extended 4.5 metres of space, and will be working from 8am until 11pm.

Regency Events set up the centre in the first lockdown. It has also helped shelter shoppers and ensured States meetings and court matters can go ahead.

‘Eventually we got back home at about 4am,’ said Regency Events’ Lloyd Helyer.

‘We are super happy to be able to support the States. Obviously, in an ideal world, this all would not be happening, but we will continue to supply retailers and the States. With Guernsey Together, if we’ve got the stuff to use to help

out where we can then we will use it.’

Regency staff have been busy catering for the pandemic despite reduced events and wedding offerings.

‘We have done a lot for the States this past year. Both the Co-op set-ups are ours, which have been up since the start of the pandemic. They were due to come down on Monday, but it looks like they’ll be staying up longer.’

Audio, lighting, power and PR products were utilised for States meetings and to record court procedures.

‘Going back to the original lockdown, the States had to move to St James for their meetings. We had 24 hours notice to set up 44 microphones for recording meetings, and in conjunction to set up the Royal Court where everything has to be recorded. On top of that, we’ve set up extra toilet and hand-washing facilities for the States of Guernsey and Education essential workers. Outside facilities have been needed while indoor ones have been getting deep-cleaned.’

Events have suffered considerably since the pandemic, so the work is very welcome.

‘August was kind of normal, with Alderney Week and Vale Earth Fair going ahead, with a few other events cancelled from earlier in the year squeezed in like the Arts Seafront Sunday and Lions Club's Guernsey Together event. The real knock-on was that weddings were not happening because people couldn’t travel in.’

Christmas parties were also reduced in December.