Time to refresh the Covid culture

An over-exaggeration, of course, but the way Covid numbers have leapt over the past week, with 300 new cases each day, and possibly more not being reported, decision-makers within the States will have been well aware of that feeling in assessing what to do next when they met yesterday.

Along with everyone knowing someone with Covid, anecdotally it appears that everyone also knows, or has heard of, someone who hasn’t reported themselves as having Covid, has failed to isolate themselves, or has been spotted in a public place, whether that’s school, pub, or even funeral.

If that has any ring of truth about it, then the Civil Contingencies Authority and its advisers and officers must accept that its plea, on its Covid website, that ‘staying at home when unwell must become part of Bailiwick culture’, has failed.

It was no surprise when the CCA came out from its still-regular meeting yesterday to propose new advice for the community.

The Omicron wave which islanders feared and expected in early January appears to have struck late, and while not appearing to be medically serious, some community services and workplaces are starting to feel overwhelmed by Covid cases and absences will start to have a real economic impact if we carry on like this.

Advice to wear a face covering again in public places and to work from home if possible won’t particularly resonate with those who believed that Covid was over.

Others will remember a previous occasion late last year when these same recommendations were made, and largely ignored by islanders, to the point where the CCA had to come back and come as close to laying down the law as is possible without making the moves mandatory.

Some will say that this move is not enough to stop this worrying spread sweeping through schools and workplaces island-wide.

But as a quick and pragmatic first step, it’s the most realistic thing the CCA can do to try to turn the numbers around.