CCA confirms move to an unrestricted Bailiwick

Thursday 18 March 2021

All community restrictions will be unlocked on Monday, it has been confirmed, allowing people to mix freely again and the return of the Bailiwick Bubble.

For the last two weeks, Monday 22 March has been earmarked as a potential date for the island to move to Stage 3 of the lockdown exit strategy.

With 18 days passing since a new case of Covid-19 was detected in the island, the return to something like normal has been rubber-stumped, pending any dramatic changes to the current situation in the coming days. 

The Bailiwick Bubble will resume, which means unrestricted travel between Guernsey and the other islands that make up the Bailiwick.

The ban on non-essential travel will be lifted, however anyone travelling from outside the Bailiwick will still have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. 

Schools have re-opened and thousands of businesses have been able to operate during Stage 2, however numerous restrictions have remained in place. 

In Stage 3, masks will become optional in indoor public places, with the legislation that made them mandatory falling away.

Social distancing will no longer be necessary, allowing people to socialise freely again. One of the few caveats is that any organised gatherings of over 100 people are being asked to keep a record of attendance, in case contact tracing is later required.

Covid clusters were linked to mass gatherings such as the Dance Festival during Guernsey's second wave of the outbreak. 

Pictured: Travel restrictions could be relaxed and, in some cases, dropped completely on 30 April depending on the prevalence of the virus in other jurisdictions.

The Civil Contingencies Authority has started planning for the eventual re-opening of our borders on a larger scale. 

According to the Bailiwick Blueprint, non-essential travel will ramp up on 30 April with region- and country-specific quarantine requirements. That opens the doors for relaxed restrictions for travel with places that have the virus under control. 

On 1 July,  it is hoped that borders will re-open without quarantine restrictions, with surveillance testing used to monitor the situation and tailor certain measures - such as pre-travel tests - for people travelling from countries that present a cause for concern.

That is still months away - what we do know is that, come Monday, Guernsey should be back in the place it was 55 days ago, when the overnight decision was made to lock the island down due to unexplained community cases.