At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Chief Minister John Le Fondré urged Islanders to continue working together in order to ‘enjoy a summer of freedom’ while Deputy Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham said he was confident of a ‘safe, enjoyable summer’.
The Island has been experiencing a surge in known active cases, with yesterday’s figure standing at 81. Of the active cases, 57 have not had a vaccine, 13 have had one jab and three had two doses but had their second within the past two weeks and had therefore not developed full immunity. Eight have been fully vaccinated.
However, it was revealed that there had been no Covid-related hospital admissions for three months.
The Chief Minister said: ‘I want to thank all Islanders for your continued resilience, co-operation and positivity as we navigate our way to the new normal – it is in sight.’
He added: ‘If we continue to work together, maintain best practice, follow track-and-trace procedures and take up the opportunity for vaccination as soon as possible, then we can enjoy a summer of freedom and a summer of safety.’
Senator Farnham added there was a ‘clear pathway in place to remove the remaining restrictions’.
Effective from yesterday’s announcement, direct contacts who have had both doses of an MHRA-approved vaccine, plus two weeks, will not be required to self isolate beyond receipt of a negative day zero test. This applies to direct contacts from both travel and on-Island situations, however frontline health and care workers will have to undertake daily PCR testing following their first negative result.
Meanwhile, a decision surrounding whether children who are identified as direct contacts will still be forced to isolate is expected to be made next week, with ministers and STAC to consider the possible options.
Alex Khaldi, the interim director of public health policy, said that the risk of disease, the loss of learning and the welfare of children isolating were some of the areas being examined.
Senator Le Fondré said: ‘For the sake of argument, if you have 15,000 children out there and there’s maybe between 100 and 200 who since June may have been identified as a direct contact, we are talking to-date quite small numbers.
‘That doesn’t make it any easier for those individual families, so [we are] very sympathetic to those families, [and] absolutely understand the position. But we also have to make sure we do protect, in that context, the overall wellbeing of the whole school population.’
Deputy medical officer of health Dr Ivan Muscat said the vaccine appeared to be slowing the rate of serious illness as a result of infection.
He said: ‘I think herd immunity is probably not going to be achieved by vaccination alone given the transmission potential of [the] Delta [variant], but what is important is that we are moving closer to less severe disease all the time and if the significance of infection is seriously attenuated then we will have achieved our primary goal.’
Islanders currently in isolation as a result of becoming a direct contact who are fully vaccinated, and have received a negative day 0 test, will be able to leave isolation with immediate effect, with the relevant paperwork due to be arranged in the coming days.
Mr Khaldi said: ‘People do need to be very sure that they fulfil the criteria of somebody who is fully vaccinated – plus two weeks – before they leave their isolation requirement. So long as people are clear about that in their own mind, then they should feel confident in being able to leave isolation.’
He added: ‘What we don’t want to see is people who have had one dose, or people who had had two doses but only had the second dose a couple of days ago, leaving isolation because in those circumstances they would be in breach of their isolation requirements.’
Mr Khaldi said it was not yet known how many Islanders would be released from isolation. ‘What we are in the process of doing is looking up all of the people in isolation to check on their double-vaccinated status.’
And, from next Tuesday, arrivals will be able to present evidence of an MHRA-approved vaccination wherever the vaccination was administered. However, 100% of non-CTA (Common Travel Area) arrivals will have their physical evidence checked at the border.
Yesterday the UK (23 June 2021) confirmed a rise of 16,135 cases. Between 17 June and 23 June, there were 79,481 people with a confirmed positive test result. This shows an increase of 43.9% compared to the previous seven days.
Meanwhile, fully vaccinated arrivals into Guernsey will not have to isolate from next Thursday [1 July].
