The updated travel restrictions will cause major changes to the ability to travel to and from Jersey, with rising rates of Covid-19 infections sparking higher risk ratings for most of the UK.
Changes to the classification of regions and countries were announced yesterday and will come into force this Saturday, a week ahead of the half-term holiday that starts on 24 October.
The vast majority of travellers arriving in Jersey come from England, which from Saturday will have only 23 of 316 regions – with a population of three million – ranked as green.
More than half of England’s population – a total of 31 million people in 158 regions – will be classified as living in red zones by this weekend, with a further 135 regions, home to 21 million people, having amber status.
Most other countries subject to regional risk ratings by Jersey will also be affected:
- Pembrokeshire will be the only one of 22 Welsh regions ranked green.
- Just six green regions will remain in Scotland, with nine ranked amber and 17 red.
- The whole of Northern Ireland will be red.
- Three-quarters of French regions will be red, with the remainder amber.
- All of the existing 14 green areas in Ireland will be upgraded.
- Mainland Portugal moves from amber to red, but Madeira remains green.
Those coming from amber zones are required to have tests on arrival and day five and must isolate until they receive a second negative result. Arrivals from red areas face a mandatory two week quarantine. Green arrivals need only isolate until the result of their first test, with the current average waiting time being nine hours.
After generally low numbers of active cases in Jersey since the Island’s borders opened on 3 July, there has been a steep increase over the past week, with 30 new cases from the weekend announced on Monday to leave the latest tally of known cases at 61.
Chief Minister John Le Fondré said yesterday that while he understood that some Islanders would be worried, he urged them to look ‘beyond the numbers’.
‘The risk has changed fractionally, but not significantly, and it remains low,’ he said. ‘We are on top of it and have adapted to it, and will continue to do so.’
In a statement released yesterday afternoon, the Chief Minister added: ‘Every Monday we release results from Friday, Saturday and Sunday – that is 43% of our weekly results released in one day. This week, 30 new cases were found from 3,588 swabs, which is a positivity rate of 0.84%. This means 99.16% of people coming into Jersey tested negative.
‘We do not isolate arriving passengers for a longer period because the risk is so low and to isolate 99% of people needlessly is against the advice of our deputy medical officer of Health, Dr Ivan Muscat, due to its lack of proportionality.
‘We do not want to prevent Islanders from leaving Jersey to visit friends and family, or to take children to university. Behind each number there is a family story and I hope people will remember that there are real people behind these statistics. We need a proportionate and balanced response that is right for Jersey. While we follow what is happening with our neighbours carefully, we do not blindly follow the measures they are taking. We have our own medical and economic advisers and they have kept us in a great position to date.’
Senator Le Fondré also said that Islanders should maintain physical distance where possible and regularly wash their hands to prevent catching the virus. The Chief Minister added that shops should be encouraging the wearing of masks and use of hand sanitiser in stores and said Islanders needed to ‘play their part’ by leaving their contact details when visiting leisure and hospitality venues.
External Relations Minister Ian Gorst said: ‘Our testing, tracking and tracing processes are working, but sadly it will be more difficult to travel, both for visitors to Jersey and for Islanders wanting to visit family and friends or do business in the UK.’
Senator Gorst said that there would be no need for a decision to close the borders, predicting that this process would happen by default.
‘The airlines are reducing the numbers of flights and seeing fewer and fewer passengers, so we will lose connectivity,’ he added. ‘I hope we can maintain connections in and out of London, but the whole of London will go into amber.’
Health Minister Richard Renouf echoed Senator Gorst’s comments during a Scrutiny panel hearing yesterday.
‘Some flights are operating at 30% of capacity, the airlines are losing money and we don’t know how long that will continue, and areas in the UK are being shut down,’ he said. ‘All these things will very soon change what we’ve experienced over the summer months – travel will become more difficult and rarer.’
The Safer Travel Policy Scrutiny Panel also heard that the government was looking at how the forthcoming changes would affect young Islanders attending boarding schools or universities in the UK.
Details of this work have not yet been shared, although a spokesperson said boarding school pupils would be a priority as part of the government’s pledge to put children first.
Deputy medical officer of health Dr Ivan Muscat said that one of the Island’s positive cases identified in the past ten days could not yet be explained.
‘There is one individual for whom we have not yet identified a source,’ he said. ‘We have spoken to 50 contacts of that person, and established that there’s been no onward transmission, but we may not be able to get any further in that scenario.’
