Covid-19 cases now exceed 100 in island
MORE than 100 islanders have active Covid-19 infections, it has been confirmed, as the second wave continues to grow.
As of midnight on Wednesday, 107 people were confirmed to have the virus and Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said a further 10 were found yesterday morning.
The illness has now been linked with 11 different educational establishments and is also affecting hospital staff.
One in 30 islanders have been tested for Covid-19 in the last few days and between 800 and 1,000 people are in compulsory isolation.
Even more are isolating as a precaution.
There is a backlog in the testing, with hundreds getting tested every day, but extra resources are being brought in to try and clear that.
Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Peter Ferbrache said the test, track and isolate programme was still central to getting the outbreak under control.
Dr Brink said she expected more cases to be found.
‘Undoubtedly, we are not out of the woods,’ she said at the press conference yesterday.
‘I’m pleased [the number of positives] they’re not going up exponentially, but I’m also not getting complacent.
‘We are still seeing new community cases occurring and those pose the risk of ongoing transmission... What we are seeing is the effect of lockdown beginning to kick in. So the number of contacts we are getting per case are starting to decline.’
She said it would be another three or four days to see the efficacy of the lockdown.
So far about 29 of the cases have been found from unknown community transmission, however some of these have subsequently been linked to other cases, as contact tracers build a clearer picture.
The confirmed cases are spread across the age ranges, but there is no one with an active infection over 80 years old. The most active cases are in the 11-20 bracket, with 22 cases, followed by 31-40 with 20 cases and 51-60 with 19 cases.
Schools are now expected to stay closed next week, even to vulnerable children and children of essential workers, but distance learning is now up and running.
Discussions are now taking place about whether to make masks mandatory and whether quarantine hotels are needed.
The latter comes just two weeks after all travel to Guernsey was banned, unless the traveller is granted a permit.
n The press conference was held online for the first time. Several of the panel have been in self-isolation and the move also aimed to reduce unnecessary journeys during lockdown. MS Teams was used to record the press conference, which included the full panel and the media, and this was then broadcast live onto Facebook. Comment Page 16
