And with case numbers beginning to rise in the UK it looked almost inevitable that the seemingly unstoppable tide of Covid would soon wash up on Jersey’s shores.
Behind the scenes, as anxiety among Islanders began to build, an army of essential workers quietly began to prepare for what might be about to come.
Among them were nurses, retail staff and those in the emergency services. But with a predicted 500 deaths, funeral directors were also having to step up.
They included Paul Battrick, managing director of Pitcher & Le Quesne, who on a relatively normal Wednesday received a call he says he will never forget.
‘I was going into meetings with people from the UK and I did not believe it was going to hit Jersey. I thought we were in our little bubble here and we would be OK. But of course we were not,’ he said.
‘It was about three o’clock in the afternoon on 25 March last year when my phone rang and someone told me that we had our first Covid death. It was one of the most emotional calls I have ever taken.
‘I was scared and I remember going to one of my colleagues and saying “Come on, we are going to do this” from where the person had passed away. We drove out there, put our kit on and I do not mind admitting I was in tears – it was so scary.’
He added: ‘It really shook us up and afterwards we were told that we could not tell anyone, as the government wanted to put out a proper press release to make sure things went out correctly.
‘So we had five or six hours where we knew about it but could not say anything. That was really weird – I have never dealt with a death like it before. I will never forget it. I even thought about my own mortality and thought “We are going to get this” because there was no vaccination at that time. There was nothing.’
At the beginning of the pandemic, the world looked to Italy, where the healthcare system was buckling under pressure and morgues were reaching capacity. Doctors there issued a stark warning to their British counterparts that they would soon be facing the same situation.
Mr Battrick said that in Jersey it was thought the first death would be the start of hundreds – triggering him to prepare for the worst and arrange his will.
‘We were working with the government on putting this mass-fatality plan together in a short period because they were expecting over 500 deaths from Covid,’ he said.
‘From that point we thought that it was really going to hit us and we took on an extra 12 staff because, with bringing in shift systems, we thought we were going to need them. We really ramped it up for us and I think it affected all of our staff who were probably all worrying.
‘It has been tough here. In the UK you can bring other companies in to help you but in Jersey we have not got that – it is just down to the three firms to deal with that.’
Throughout the crisis, restrictions have been placed on the number of people who can attend gatherings and events. The measures even extended to funerals – something Mr Battrick said had made an already difficult situation even more challenging.
‘There is one person who really sticks in my mind whose dad had passed away and she could not come and see her dad. She was not there when he passed away, either. Funeral directors are normally saying “Yes, we can do this and yes we can help with this”. We were having to say “No, sorry, we are not allowed to do this”,’ he said.
‘One of the let-down bits for me was the communication with regards to funeral attendance numbers changing. I can understand why it had to happen but we were not told soon enough.
‘We would hear about it in the Friday afternoon press release and, at the last minute, we were having to phone the families and tell them that things have changed.
‘That was quite hard to deal with but things have improved now.’
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Jersey has recorded 69 Covid-related deaths. The rapidly assembled Nightingale Hospital and the overflow temporary ‘Sanctum’ mortuary at Bellozanne were not put into operation.
Despite this, Mr Battrick praised those who had put plans in place to prepare Jersey for a potentially much worse outcome.
‘The death rate for last year was actually down, so we actually ended up in quite a good place. I think the Island has coped with it really well and the mass-fatality group put a brilliant plan together. I sit on a UK group and, listening to what they had planned, they had nothing as well planned as we did.
‘We had a first-class mortuary facility set up at Bellozanne blessed by all faiths, and if one of my family members had passed away I would be happy for them to stay there.
‘That was all down to the joint-working of the States police, the funeral directors, the Deputy Viscount, the medical officer of health and all the other parties who were just working as one team to have measures in place if the worst-case scenario did happen, which thankfully it did not.’
