At yesterday’s press conference it was revealed that four cases were linked to the cluster identified in connection to the store.

After the cases were found, the store closed to undergo a ‘deep clean’. Pending further tests the hope is that it would reopen today at 9am.

Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said they were on top of the situation.

‘We’ve done a lot of cohort testing which we’ve done overnight and will go on into today,’ she said.

The Channel Islands Co-operative Society CEO Mark Cox confirmed this was the case and said the incident had emphasised the need to maintain greater cleaning standards. ‘An external cleaning contractor was employed to deep clean the entire [St Sampson’s Grande Marche] store, this involved a deep clean and sanitising of all colleague and customer areas whilst the store was closed,’ he said.

‘We have implemented enhanced cleaning in all stores, with customer touch points such as trolleys, baskets, self-checkouts and checkout areas being sanitised on a regular basis.’

Supermarket staff were among those chosen for ‘targeted’ Covid-19 testing at the East Arm testing facility on Sunday, along with ports staff.

The testing had been unrelated to the incident and had initially been organised to ensure that these areas were being carefully monitored, and to give assurance that staff were able to continue working safely. Despite the news of positive cases, customers of the store have been advised they do not need to self-isolate unless they are directly contacted by the contact tracing team, but should continue to follow lockdown rules and stay at home, only leaving for essential reasons or their two hours of exercise or activity. If symptoms do occur they are asked to contact the clinical helpline. Mr Cox added that his thoughts remained with his colleagues and those in the community.

‘Safety and wellbeing of our colleagues is paramount, our human resource team and operational management continue to have regular contact with all colleagues,’ he said.

‘As a community retailer, we are committed to supporting our members, colleagues and customers as the islands respond to the coronavirus outbreak. We have very strict health and safety processes in place in our stores and are continuing to follow all relevant advice from the States of Guernsey.’

n Those with Covid symptoms should contact the clinical helpline on 756938 or 756969.