JERSEY has no current plans to step up Covid-19 restrictions in spite of a sharp rise in the number of cases of the Omicron variant, the deputy medical officer of health has said.
Dr Ivan Muscat said that, although one-third of recent samples had been identified as the highly infectious strain, he did not anticipate the need for new measures during the final week of December, beyond those already announced and set to be applied on 4 January.
The government has also confirmed that it is asking public health officials whether Jersey might follow England in reducing the isolation period for positive Covid cases from ten to seven days.
Guided by Dr Muscat, ministers in Jersey look set to hold the line and resist calls for further restrictions immediately after Christmas of the kind that have been announced in Scotland and Wales.
Dr Muscat said: ‘We will always review the evidence and respond appropriately, and at the moment the proportionate response is the measures we have outlined for 4 January.’
With effect from the first working day of 2022, Islanders will once again be advised to work from home where possible and legally obliged to wear masks in designated indoor settings.
From the same date, in order to be exempt from testing at the border, adults will need to have had two doses and a booster, and those aged 12 to 17 will need two doses.
Although it is only a week since the highly transmissible Omicron variant was officially identified in Jersey, numbers have climbed significantly.
Dr Muscat said that of samples sent for analysis in the UK over the past week to ten days, one-third were Omicron and two-thirds Delta, which has been the dominant strain in recent months.
‘Given the growth rate of Omicron, doubling every two days, we would expect that Jersey would follow the UK, with Omicron cases outnumbering Delta and Omicron becoming the dominant strain here in January,’ he said.
Reliable information regarding the severity of Omicron in the UK and Jersey was not likely to be available for another two weeks, but would help shape policy once it was available, he added.
Ahead of Jersey’s new measures coming in on 4 January, Dr Muscat repeated strong recommendations to wear masks and take lateral-flow tests before attending social occasions, and urged Islanders eligible for further vaccination to book appointments.
‘Vaccination remains our strongest weapon against coronavirus – we have been administering more than 1,000 doses daily and will look to increase this further if we can,’ he said.
The reduction in the mandatory isolation period for positive Covid cases in England was announced by Health Secretary Sajid Javid this week. Anyone who had tested positive for Covid could leave isolation if they recorded negative results from lateral flow tests on days six and seven, he said.
A Jersey government spokesperson said that public health officials and members of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell had been asked by ministers to review the position in Jersey. Reference was also made in a short statement to Jersey ‘not experiencing the same levels of infection as England, nor the disruption to critical national infrastructure’.
Dr Muscat confirmed Jersey’s isolation rules were under review, but said he could not comment further ahead of a decision being reached.
