JERSEY appears to be over the peak in viral infections experienced in the run-up to Christmas, according to the director of public health.
The rise in infections, which decimated some businesses’ staffing levels earlier this winter, is believed to be, at least in part, the result of weakened immunity following two years of Covid restrictions.
Professor Peter Bradley said: ‘We are now in a much better position with regard to winter viruses generally. Our latest figures show we are seeing decreasing rates of flu and of the RSV virus, and our position with Covid remains relatively low compared to what we have seen before.
‘Obviously we are still in winter [and] we are still very vigilant about what might happen but we are certainly in a much better position today than we were just before Christmas.’
Deputy medical officer of health Dr Ivan Muscat said that flu infections rose from about 35 in early December to around 100 before Christmas, but they have fallen to around 35 again, while the 14-day rate for Covid-19, which was 762 on 5 January, fell to 324 on Tuesday this week.
He also said it appeared that cases of scarlet fever were following a similar trend.
‘In the earlier part of the year from July to early December we had about 58 cases of scarlet fever and that number increased over December to something over 70, but if you look at the detail of that number in the last month or so, you will see that there is a gradually decreasing number each week,’ he added.
‘Seeing that all of them are following the same trend is encouraging – we just hope that we see the trend continuing,’ he said.
Professor Bradley and Dr Muscat said they wanted to take the opportunity to thank the public for their co-operation, but Dr Muscat emphasised that it was important that Islanders continued to follow a number of key public health messages.
‘It remains important that individuals do what they have been doing to help control these infections by staying at home if they are unwell, doing a lateral-flow test as part of that exercise and, of course, staying in for at least five days and being asymptomatic for 48 hours before going out if they are lateral-flow-test positive, taking up the offer of vaccination and [maintaining] good ventilation, which we have always emphasised over the last year or so, remains a hugely important part of the response from the community,’ he said, adding that staying warm at the same time was also important.
