On Friday it was announced that the virus, also known as Covid-19, had been designated as a ‘notifiable disease’.
The change, which was made as part of a ministerial decision, means that all medical professionals must report details of any suspected cases to the Medical Officer of Health – allowing health services to respond quickly and appropriately to any outbreak.
Senator John Le Fondré said, financially, Jersey was the envy of other jurisdictions and strategic reserves were available to deal with any economic crisis.
‘Economic vulnerability has been in our minds and so when we put the Government Plan together there are some contingencies in there that, if there should be an economic impact, we are prepared for it,’ he said.
‘There is a three-tranche system. There are some transfers we are going to make to the Stabilisation Reserve, which could be used if we need to spend more on benefits, for example.
‘Then we have the Stabilisation Fund, which is being built up and actually we did a significant transfer of money into it last year.
‘And, if it really got significant, then we also have the Strategic Reserve and other reserves that we can tap into. So, financially, for dealing with those kinds of shocks, we are in quite an enviable position relative to other jurisdictions.’
The Chief Minister was asked if any financial support could be put in place specifically to support businesses.
In response, he made reference to the implementation of a short-term incapacity scheme to provide financial support to those self-isolating. He added that, in most cases, employees would still be able to work remotely.
‘The general principle is that we would expect all businesses to have some form of continuity planning for dealing with what happens if members of staff go ill and particularly for a couple of weeks,’ he said.
‘According to the medical advice to date, for many people if they do go ill it is likely to be relatively mild and you will still be capable of working from home.
‘There are some provisions in place around the short-term benefits side of things so those standard measures are in place for all of those sorts of circumstances.’
However, Senator Le Fondré was then asked if financial support would be given to businesses whose employees would not be able to work from home, such as in construction.
‘There should be a light impact if they go down with this virus. It is a timely issue to an extent as well.
‘As things progress over the weeks and months into summer, remembering that we have not had any reported cases on the Island yet, this type of virus is far less virulent because it does less well in warm weather.
‘If there are individual businesses that have specific concerns and need specific advice look on the States website where some business-specific advice is being put up and possibly go through their industry bodies.’
Passenger temperature-monitoring devices aimed at detecting people with coronavirus have now been installed in several airports around the world.
However, Senator Le Fondré said that he could not foresee these being introduced in Jersey’s ports.
‘The advice at the moment is that does not actually achieve the defence that we are looking for,’ he said.
‘It is great as a message but it does not do very much and the best defence is to wash your hands and, if you come back from any affected areas and exhibit symptoms, to self-isolate.
‘I would also push people towards the helpline and if they have specific concerns they can get help through that.’
There have been 51 tests for coronavirus locally with no positive results.
