Senator John Le Fondré, appearing before a Scrutiny panel yesterday, said that he would welcome such a review of the government’s performance, but did not commit to a full-scale public inquiry.
Speaking at a Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel hearing, the Chief Minister said the government wanted to ‘wait until we get to that point, to understand what the cost implications are, or whether there is an alternative way of achieving the same aim’.
Panel member Deputy Steve Ahier had asked Senator Le Fondré whether they intended to launch an inquiry, to give a ‘comprehensive understanding’ of successes and lessons learned during the pandemic.
Senator Le Fondré said public inquiries of that scale were usually costly, citing the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry as an example, saying it had cost ‘tens of millions of pounds’.
He said he welcomed some form of review or inquiry that identified what was done well and what could have been done better in a Jersey and international context, but added that it should be conducted once the Island is ‘out of the pandemic’.
When questioned as to how ‘out of the pandemic’ should be defined, Senator Le Fondré said: ‘For me that is when it has gone to more business as usual, that we are essentially dealing with it almost like the flu.’
He added that it ‘essentially’ meant the health risk had diminished, and would also take into account what had happened around the rest of the world.
Senator Le Fondré said the Crown Dependencies were in ‘good positions’ but added a note of caution, saying: ‘I have learned my lesson from declaring it is all over and we are done. I will not be saying that yet.’
He also outlined plans for a vaccine booster programme, which he said was expected in the third quarter of this year, although he added that this was ‘indicative’. ‘I believe at this stage we are getting to the stage of living with the new normal,’ he added.
Interim director of public health policy Alex Khaldi said it was unlikely the World Health Organisation would declare the pandemic was over for at least another year, due to inequality in vaccination coverage.
Senator Le Fondré said there was ‘no question’ that ‘you are going to have to move to living with Covid’.
