‘Don’t bank on going anywhere for a while’

Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Peter Ferbrache said it was unlikely people would be able to travel soon.

‘I think it will be very difficult for people to travel at all in the coming months,’ he said.

‘This is so fast changing. They’ve got massive problems elsewhere. What we want to do, when we come out of this lockdown, is make sure, if at all possible, we don’t go back into another one.’

The Exit From Lockdown document does not include any details about when people could come into the island without needing government-issued permits.

Deputy Chief Minister Heidi Soulsby said the borders were a separate issue.

‘At the moment we are dealing with the outbreak and lockdown and getting out of it,’ she said.

‘The borders are something that is constantly under review and of course it links very closely with what’s going on around us – the UK and elsewhere. Particularly the UK and the success of their vaccination programme and getting their numbers down.’

Deputy Soulsby warned that people coming from red list countries to the UK would have to isolate in quarantine hotels in England before coming to Guernsey and quarantining here as well.

In terms of the idea of quarantine hotels locally, she said it was not something they were introducing at this stage.

‘We are keeping it under review, but now we feel is not the right time to do it,’ she said.

Deputy Ferbrache said they were also considering other ideas about household controls for self-isolation.

Currently cases in the UK are falling, but there are still at 199 cases per 100,000 people. People are allowed to travel to Guernsey only if they have been granted a permit by Public Health for essential reasons. Traveller numbers are very low.