A timeline of Covid-19’s impact on the Bailiwick
GUERNSEY’S first lockdown lasted around three months, measures for its second are said to be ‘short and sharp’ and will be reviewed after two weeks.
7 February – Travel advice asks those returning from China to self-isolate for two weeks.
11 February – Covid-19 named officially.
Mid-February – Health & Social Care enters discussions with Covid-19 test hardware suppliers. Soon after, a Grammar School student displayed Covid-19 symptoms upon returning from a February half-term ski trip to Piedmont in the north-west of Italy. All 29 staff and students were isolated and tested, but all tests came back negative.
9 March – First positive test for Covid-19, a resident returning from Tenerife.
11 March – World Health Organization declares a pandemic.
12 March – Advice issued against non-essential travel in or out of the island. Anyone returning from any destination must self-isolate for two full weeks regardless of symptoms.
20 March – Nightclubs and bars have their opening hours curtailed.
21 March – 15 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in a 24-hour period, mostly in clusters of people who had travelled together or socialised together abroad, rather than from community seeding.
23 March – Schools close indefinitely.
24 March – Lockdown begins, initially for two weeks. Islanders who do not have essential jobs are not allowed to leave their houses unless for essential reasons such as shopping, collecting medicine or two hours of exercise.
27 March – ‘Red zone’ established in the Emergency Department to treat patients presenting with Covid-19 symptoms.
28/29 March – On-island testing established. Three positive cases rapidly identified in a nursing home.
30 March – First death attributed to Covid-19.
3 April – Covid-19 prevention measures spread to funerals, with only immediate family members or a few close friends allowed to attend.
7 April – Lockdown extended by two weeks. Hospital, hospice and care home visits stopped.
14 April – States holds first virtual meeting.
3 May – Household bubbles introduced, with one being able to ‘bubble up’ with one other.
7 May – One week without a positive case and the exercise limit is extended to four hours.
15 May – Third stage of lockdown exit begins a week early with garden centres and other outlets allowed to open. Household bubble size extended to four.
22 May – All islanders with respiratory symptoms asked to take a Covid-19 test.
28 May – Guernsey becomes one of the first places in Europe to have no active cases of the virus.
1 June – Phase four of lockdown exit begins. Hairdressers, gyms, restaurants, pubs, cafes, museums and cinemas reopen.
19 June – 50 days and no new Covid-19 cases have been reported.
20 June – ‘Bailiwick bubble’ created as the island enters phase five of exit strategy, allowing islanders to move around freely and all businesses allowed to reopen.
5-10 July – Trial of passengers arriving in the island being placed in seven-day quarantine, provided they are tested at the end of it. Of the 615 people who took part, none tested positive.
22 July – First air bridge flights to and from the Isle of Man.
28 July – Business travellers allowed into the island on a one-day return as ‘business tunnels’ initiative launched.
5 August – It is announced that a seven-day quarantine option for those travelling from certain countries will be introduced from 17 August.
8 August – 100 days with no new cases of Covid-19.
7 September – Following 129 days with no active cases, a person on their seventh day of self-isolation after arriving from the UK tests positive for Covid-19 and leads to several further isolated arrivals testing positive in the following weeks.
9 October – Guernsey 2020 election sees half the new House made up of sitting deputies, while the rest are newcomers and former deputies. Policy & Resources president and Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Gavin St Pier, who managed the island through the pandemic and first lockdown, tops the poll.
16 October – By a majority of six votes, the new States votes Peter Ferbrache into the role of Policy & Resources president and with it the Civil Contingencies Authority chairman role.
20 October – A case with an ‘unknown source’ is identified.
23 October – A cluster of seven related cases is identified, seeing between 80 and 100 people enter self-isolation, though there is no evidence of widespread community seeding. The Isle of Man air bridge is suspended by the Manx government because of the cluster of cases.
9 November – Preliminary analysis shows a coronavirus vaccine from companies Pfizer and BioNTech to be more than 90% effective.
30 November – Jersey’s chief minister, John Le Fondre, announces that mask wearing is to be made compulsory in a number of locations following a spike in new Covid cases.
2 December – The UK becomes the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Jersey put restrictions in place closing leisure and hospitality businesses, by mid-December care homes close to visitors too.
8 December – UK grandmother Margaret Keenan, 90, becomes the first patient in the world to receive the Pfizer jab.
9 December – Guernsey approves Pfizer vaccine.
10 December – The first batch of 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrives in the island.
17 December – The first doses of a Covid-19 vaccine are administered in Guernsey. The first to Dr Sue Fleming, matron of St John’s Residential Home.
6 January – Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine approved for use in Guernsey.
7 January – Isle of Man enters its second lockdown, a ‘circuit breaker’ of three weeks. Jersey looks to ease a number of restrictions.
8 January – New UK Covid variant – an up-to-70% more transmissible and deadly form of the virus – is identified in Guernsey. Targets and timetable laid out for vaccination programme with more than 40,000 inoculations expected by the end of March.
11 January – Vaccinations start for care home residents.
23 January – Second lockdown imposed in Guernsey after four cases identified from an unknown source. One from the Ship & Crown and the Crow’s Nest leads to an appeal for symptomatic people only to come forward following hundreds of calls.
25 January – Deep cleaning takes place at six schools and a nursery after confirmation of Covid–19 cases, it results in the closure of all schools.
26 January – Third vaccine, Moderna, approved for Bailiwick use with dose arrivals due in the spring. Payroll co-funding scheme and hardship fund reinstated. Travellers into Alderney from Guernsey asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
28 January – Covid-19 press briefings go digital for the first time as case numbers reach 107, affecting 11 education settings.
