While non-essential travel to the island is likely to be permitted from 22 March, arriving passengers will have to complete a fortnight’s mandatory isolation until 30 April, when a risk-based classification scheme is set to be reintroduced.
The ‘Bailiwick Blueprint’ document includes plans to fully reopen Guernsey’s borders, ‘subject to public-health concerns’, on ‘1 July 2021 or later’.
Although Jersey’s roadmap towards normality was outlined by ministers on 5 March, decisions on border policy were put off. Further discussions by the Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell are due to take place on Monday, and the final decision from ministers is likely to be announced later in the week.
On Thursday Dr Ivan Muscat, deputy medical officer of health, indicated that Jersey may open borders for travel to jurisdictions in the Common Travel Area – the UK, Ireland and Crown Dependencies – sooner than for other countries.
Guernsey’s target date for reintroducing risk-based country classification – 30 April – coincides with the date by which it expects everyone over 50 and anyone at risk to have received their first dose of the vaccine.
Following a spike in cases which prompted lockdown measures to come into effect on 23 January, Guernsey’s tally had fallen to just a single case by yesterday. The number of active cases in Jersey dropped to four yesterday.
