More contagious variant started four-case cluster
JUST one of the 52 new cases of Covid-19 over the weekend was from a completely unknown source as Guernsey moves in a promising direction, Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said yesterday.
The number of new positive cases has been moving down generally from a peak of 47, with 22 on Friday, nine on Saturday and 21 on Sunday.
Of these, five were from unknown community sources.
But Dr Brink said only one of those community-seeded cases could not be linked to anyone.
‘What we’ve managed to do with the other four cases is, although we couldn’t directly link them to another person, they occurred in areas of interest to us,’ she said.
‘So there is one case of concern.’
There have been rises and falls in case numbers in recent days, but Dr Brink said this was often due to outbreaks in households, which could see four or five people all testing positive at once.
At 1pm yesterday, she said they had not yet had any positive cases that day. While this could change later, she said this was the first time this had happened since 22 January.
‘So a promising move in the right direction,’ she said.
It has now been confirmed that the first four cases of Covid-19, which were identified just over two weeks ago, are all the more-transmissible UK variant.
Two staff and two residents of La Grande Lande care home tested positive last week, but there have been no further positive cases from that home.
A positive case on Friday has been linked to a second home – St John’s Residential Home in Saumarez Park – but testing of all 56 staff and 40 residents there has found no further cases.
About 300 vulnerable children and children of essential workers were back on school sites yesterday. They were all tested and no positive cases were found. However, two teachers did test positive in the pre-return checks.
Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Deputy Peter Ferbrache warned that the return of all pupils was likely to be some way off yet.
There are 10 people with Covid in the hospital. Two were getting intensive care treatment. Two others do not need clinical care as they are there to support a care and residential home’s care provision.
Medical director Dr Peter Rabey said staff were preparing for a busy week, as often hospitalisation numbers lagged behind positive results. This was due to people often needing support later on in the illness.
The CCA is meeting today and any changes to lockdown restrictions will be announced at tomorrow’s 1pm press briefing.
