Schools, colleges and early years providers have closed, except for vulnerable students and children of essential workers.
People are being told to stay at home unless they are seeking medical care, carrying out essential shopping for food or supplies, or for up to two-hours of exercise outdoors, with other members of their households unless they live alone, in which case they can exercise with one member of another household while socially distanced.
Islanders are also being told to work from home.
Restaurants and non-essential retail are not being treated as essential and are being told not to open, even for deliveries or takeaways.
Guernsey Chief Minister Peter Ferbrache said: ‘We have four new cases of Covid-19 that have been identified overnight and it is not clear yet if they are linked or how they contracted the virus. We must for the moment assume this is the result of community seeding.
‘We are announcing these steps with immediate effect in the hope that we can get this quickly under control with a sharp and strict lockdown. Unlike before, this is not new to us. We have done this once already, we know as a community that together we can do this successfully and keep each other safe.
‘Even in doing this for a second time, we know the rules are not perfect. This isn’t about perfection, it’s about speed. If we need to update our guidance in the days ahead, we will do, so please bear with us. We have taken decisive action.
‘We know a lockdown isn’t easy. Guidance to support services is also available on our website. Call your friends and family, use video links and stay in touch. We must remember the objective here is to prevent the virus spreading. We should remember that in every single thing we all do.
‘We know there will be many questions. We are continuing to meet and make decisions. We expect these measures to be in place for at least two weeks but we constantly reviewing them.’
The lockdown is likely to come as a huge shock to Guernsey residents, who have enjoyed relatively normality, with no social-distancing, for months.
It is understood the island has about ten active cases.
