Almost 10% of islanders have had first injection

But the local vaccination programme is powering ahead, and about one in ten islanders have now received their first injection.

The latest infection figures shows a rise of 35 cases between midnight on Wednesday and midnight on Thursday.

One patient with Covid-19 is in hospital, but they were admitted for another health reason.

The rising total comes as Guernsey marks a week since it went into lockdown, following the discovery of four community seeded cases, with no clear source of the outbreak.

In an open letter to islanders, Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Peter Ferbrache said lockdown was not easy, but it was being kept as short as possible. ‘Our case numbers continue to rise, but encouragingly it is not an exponential increase and a higher proportion of them are identified through contact tracing,’ he said.

‘Our Public Health team are linking more and more cases together, building a clearer picture of the spread and getting it under control.’

Islanders should be leaving their home only for essential reasons or for two hours of daily exercise.

Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said it would be a few more days before the benefits of the hard lockdown were felt.

The outbreak has not prevented the opening of the community vaccination centre at Beau Sejour, as it was designed to allow for social distancing in case of an outbreak.

The latest vaccine figures have shown that, up to last Sunday, 6,151 people had received their first vaccination dose and 522 the second.

That means at least 9.7% of the population has received at least one injection.

The actual number of vaccinations will be higher now than the figures published yesterday.

The hub was designed to vaccinate up to 300 people a day and is operating five days a week. Currently the programme is focusing on vaccinating health and care staff and the over-75s, but letters have been sent to the over-70s so they can get booked in for their vaccinations.

Deputy Ferbrache said progress was positive but Guernsey could not get complacent. ‘There is a lot of work to do to get on top of this virus, and return us to the excellent position we were in just one week ago,’ he said.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have both been approved for use in the island. This week the Moderna vaccine was also approved for use here, but it will take some time for stock to arrive.

News has now broken that two more vaccines are also moving into their final stages before approval.

The Novavax vaccine has finished its phase three trial and was found to be 89.3% effective in preventing Covid in participants.

Guernsey gets a share of the UK’s vaccines and the UK has secured 60m. doses of vaccine, which will be delivered in the second half of this year, if it is approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Janssen has also published data on its phase three trials, which shows a single dose of its vaccine is about 66% effective. Other vaccines require two doses to be fully effective. Studies into the effectiveness of two doses of the Janssen vaccine is ongoing. The UK has ordered 30m. doses to arrive later this year, subject to regulatory approval.