“Now is not the time for Guernsey to throw caution to the wind"

Friday 18 June 2021

Calls have been made for Guernsey to rethink its loosening of border restrictions from 1 July in light of new evidence, with the UK extending its lockdown due to the Delta Variant and Jersey added to the island's covid watchlist.

Jersey's number of known cases per 100,000 - 48.24 over a 14-day period - means that the island is now on Guernsey's Category 2 watch list.

Meanwhile, Jersey has now classified the entire of England as 'red', meaning all travellers into the island from 29 June will have to isolate for ten days unless they've had two vaccinations.

Jersey’s escalating situation has also escalated the concerns of some in Guernsey’s community, as the island prepares for its biggest relaxation of border restrictions to date.

Guernsey going to need to change contact tracing/isolation rules too after 1 July l? Otherwise it’ll find itself in same position of double vaccinated being told to isolate as contacts, even though they wouldn’t need to isolate on entry. (NB Jersey had 51 cases and 900 isolating)

— Gavin St Pier ???????? (@gavinstpier) June 17, 2021

Pictured: Ex-Chief Minister, Deputy Gavin St Pier, raised concerns about Guernsey’s rules in the run-up to our border relaxations.

On 1 July, fully vaccinated people will be able to freely move within the Common Travel Area. However, the local impact of Jersey red-listing the UK - plus the UK Government's extension of lockdown - is yet to be clarified.

It comes amid a surge of cases in the UK linked to the more transmissible Delta Variant. Guernsey's strategy from July has already been tightened slightly since its announcement last month, so that only fully vaccinated islanders will be exempt from isolation and travel requirements when coming from the CTA. 

Most people under 30 and many under 40 will not have had the opportunity for both doses by 1 July, which has caused its own concerns over age discrimination and the fear that those who have not been double dosed will be exposed to the virus by incoming travellers.

The Delta Variant has proved resistant to Covid-19 vaccines around 8% of the time, according to current data cited by Public Health. 

“Now is not the time for Guernsey to throw caution to the wind,” said HSC Committee Member Deputy Aidan Matthews, who also expressed concerns in the States on Wednesday. 

Pictured: Until 1 July, Guernsey is still abiding by region categorisation when determining travel restrictions with the UK and Jersey. Prevalence rates are reviewed three times a week.

Deputy Matthews added: "We made a decision to "bubble" with the UK when cases were low/falling and before Delta variant became widespread. It's a very different picture now."

“Guernsey is still in a good position,” said Deputy Yvonne Burford, during an exchange on social media about Jersey’s 51 known positive cases. “But for how much longer?” she asked.

Much like Guernsey, Jersey has moved forward on its vaccine certificates and people travelling into the island from the CTA who have been ‘double jabbed’ only need to isolate until their first PCR test comes back negative.

Covid certificates for people in Guernsey who are fully vaccinated will be sent out early next month, according to Civil Contingencies Chairman Peter Ferbrache.