Bubbles burst as CCA favours group size limits

Thursday 04 February 2021

The Civil Contingencies Authority appears unlikely to reintroduce household bubbles due to the "tough decisions" it required people to make about who they could and could not mix with.

Bubbling was introduced in Phase 2 of Guernsey's exit from lockdown last year. It allowed people to socialise with a small number of other households in their own homes, providing they were in good health and not showing any Covid-like symptoms.

This concept was expanded from one household initially, to multiple households, so that loved ones did not have to social distance when in each other's company.

However, once you had bubbled with another person or household, you could not reverse that decision, meaning that many people were faced with difficult decisions over which family and friends to connect with. 

Pictured: A video, posted last May, explaining the concept of household bubbles, following questions about how it worked. 

The CCA has not yet made a final decision on re-introducing bubbles as part of its exit from lockdown strategy. However, the current position indicates that the emergency decision-making body is going to adopt a different approach.

"We might not do bubbles, but we might do group sizes [as] sometimes people found it quite tricky to choose a grandparent or to choose a cousin (for example)," said Dr Nicola Brink. 

"We’re going to look at perhaps doing it slightly differently this time and maybe saying that you can meet outside, as the virus doesn’t spread quite as easily outside with a group of people. 

"We are thinking of doing that instead of bubbling, as we know some people found those choices really tough to make when they had to choose one over another."

Pictured top: Public Health Director Dr Nicola Brink.