Public trust keeps us just on top of Covid

Earlier however, he had reflected, with the merest hint of self-congratulation, on how we’ve all been able to ‘live pretty decent lives’ throughout 2021.

And notwithstanding current concerns raised by some this week about the ‘information vacuum’ over the Christmas period – criticism which Dr Brink described as ‘very demoralising’ for her and her team – it’s a case that, although it wasn’t particularly well argued, seems pretty well justified.

Guernsey can look back on 2021 – and even further back to the start of the pandemic in March 2020 – and reflect on a job, so far, largely well done.

The plaudits for that should go not just to health professionals and the politicians involved, but also the island population which has responded so well at almost every turn that it has made the job of managing the crisis so much easier.

So much so that even when the Omicron wave over Christmas took cases smashing through the 1,000 ceiling and also past 1,500, there wasn’t much protest at yesterday’s press conference.

A switch in testing reliance from PCRs to lateral flow tests? Accepted. Embraced by the public, which self-reported more than 700 positive tests in the first three days.

Seven-day isolation? Not a single concern expressed. In fact, the CCA will keep an eye on five-day too, but appeared sceptical of its effectiveness.

Dr Brink relatively relaxed, confident in booster take-up and relying on a low level of hospital admissions once again, where, for once, the island is happy to be falling behind Jersey and the Isle of Man in ‘league tables’.

Five people are in hospital with Covid, four in the ICU, which may be of some concern. But Dr Peter Rabey was clear about how the figures translate for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Perhaps the more significant concerns for now are the loss of isolating staff and knock-on delays for operations.

Nothing splits a community like a Covid argument, but it seems we can end 2021 with a degree of confidence that we are still playing this issue about as well as could be hoped.