The end of the beginning for Covid
EVEN before the words slipped from the lips of Civil Contingencies Authority chairman Peter Ferbrache yesterday lunchtime, quoting Sir Winston Churchill, some islanders would have been thinking the very same. Was the CCA announcing the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?
Some 687 days after the island went into lockdown for the first time, running scared of Covid, Deputy Ferbrache and Dr Brink announced that we were to be freed, not today, as Sir Winston also famously said, but next Thursday.
Islanders will no longer be subject to the CCA’s emergency regulations from 17 February, a week ahead of the UK – signalling an end to legally mandated self-isolation for cases and the removal of all border restrictions.
This effectively signals, beyond ‘living responsibly’ with it, the end of Covid fear. Not everyone will agree with this latest move, placing Guernsey, which was, 18 months ago, one of the jurisdictions most nervous about Covid, to the leader in the British Isles for attempting to push on and into a brave, new future.
With just a hint of Conservative ‘confidence’, Deputy Ferbrache and Dr Brink talked about ‘taking back control’ and giving the community control over its own activities once again. The spirit is now community management, not central dictat.
It seems fair to say this largely reflects the mood of the island and the seriousness of most Covid illnesses.
Deputy Ferbrache noted the need to keep the nervous onside, to respect and empower them. And, he admitted, no decision is ‘risk-free’.
Now compliance with Covid guidance will be voluntary – required isolation removed, but a recommendation for the sick to stay at home – the results might prove interesting, but with reporting of cases merely requested, and only weekly results being published, we may never quite know where we are again on our Covid journey.
At times it this has felt like a very long journey, but, as Deputy Ferbrache said, the island has completed its first chapter and must move on, both the Covid-confident and those less-so, in the spirit of Guernsey Together, to go on and write a successful, second chapter.