Community seeding identified in Guernsey

Wednesday 21 July 2021

A case of community seeding has been identified in Guernsey after a child at Notre Dame school tested positive yesterday for Covid-19.

The Year 6 student had not left the island in the last 14 days and has no known links to any positive cases.

The child become symptomatic after the last day of term and contact tracing is now underway following the positive test. The Director of Public Health wanted to reassure the public that cases like these were always likely to happen. 

"Instances of community seeding are to be expected as we adjust to living with Covid but our robust contact tracing measures along with our high vaccination rate means we are well placed to minimise onward transmission,” said Dr Nicola Brink. 

1/ We currently have no cases of COVID-19 in the hospital post-second wave. We now have 49 (known) active cases of COVID-19 in the Bailiwick. 4 new cases have been identified in Guernsey - 3 are travel related and 1 is a symptomatic community case. There have been 2 recoveries. pic.twitter.com/HeQdFUjsue

— States of Guernsey (@Govgg) July 21, 2021

Pictured: 21 of these cases are in Guernsey, 27 in Alderney and 1 in Sark. 

Dr Brink continued: “It is worth noting that all schools have had additional safety measures in place since the start of the pandemic, including hand sanitising on entry and general good hygiene.

“We are incredibly grateful to all teaching staff and children across our schools for having adhered to this so responsibly.”

Parents and carers of students are being asked not to contact Public Health at this time, as they will be called in due course.

If you are experiencing Covid-like symptoms please call the Clinical Helpline on 756938 or 756969.