Robert Mackenzie, managing director of CI Travel Group, made the comments the day after border-testing for double-vaccinated passengers arriving in Jersey were dropped.
Figures available through the government website showed that 107 of the 415 positive Covid cases recorded during the half-term break were detected through border testing. By comparison, over the same period – from 25 October until 1 November – 177 cases were picked up through people seeking healthcare, 107 through arrivals screening, 107 through contact tracing and 14 through workforce screening. Seven cases were found through cohort screening and three through admissions screening.
Other figures released by the government showed that, as of 5pm on Monday, 9,476 Islanders had signed up to a new home lateral-flow-testing programme launched a week ago. Those taking part in the scheme are asked to take the tests twice a week – especially before meeting friends and family.
Meanwhile, in schools, up to 1 November, there were a total of 27 confirmed cases of Covid.
Mr Mackenzie said: ‘The wider issue for us is to continue to focus on the really important figures, which are the hospitalisations and fatalities associated with Covid. The government here has said for a while that the focus has been moving away from the number of cases – although that is clearly a factor – but it is more now about learning to live with Covid and the impact on the community has been relatively small compared to what it used to be because of the level of vaccinations.
‘Of course, the increase in Covid numbers has been marked in recent weeks but this has not been followed by a similar rise in hospitalisations and deaths.
‘A lot of the current cases are from young people who are often not double or single-vaccinated and are clearly less affected by the virus than older people would have been.’
Mr Mackenzie also highlighted limitations in the figures – including those for hospital admissions which currently do not set out how many people have been admitted due to Covid.
He said: ‘Again, this is a figure that used to be provided and certainly was available at some point. I think it was about 50-50.
‘Just because there are six people in hospital does not mean that they are all there because of Covid. It could be that they tested positive when they entered hospital for another problem.’
Ports of Jersey has reminded Islanders that, despite the relaxation in border testing, everyone arriving into the Island must still complete a passenger locator form.
