Guernsey moves to revised Phase 5c

Thursday 15 October 2020

Testing on arrival will be introduced at local ports later this month as the island moves to Phase 5c - although the plans have had to be revised as covid cases in neighbouring jurisdictions continue to rise.

The changes are due to come into place on 26 October, when travellers from nearly all countries will be asked to take a test immediately after their arrival.

The new phase will see countries split into four categories, rather than the three groups islanders have become used to over recent months.

Category One will refer to countries and regions where there is no requirement for any tests or isolation. At the moment, this is only the case for the Isle of Man which has an airbridge with Guernsey.

Category Two will include countries with a low prevalence of covid cases (between zero and 30 per 100,000 people). Currently, there are no jurisdictions with direct links to Guernsey that would meet the criteria for the category.

Pictured: Phase 5c will see a move to categories rather than groups.

Anyone travelling from low prevalence jurisdictions will be asked to take a test on arrival and will only need to self-isolate until their results come back, providing they are negative.

They will then go into enhanced passive follow-up, preventing them from going to indoor venues like restaurants, clubs, cafes, pubs, gyms, swimming pools, theatres or cinemas until their day seven test results come back. They can go to indoor shops but only to buy essential items.

Those in enhanced passive follow-up won't be allowed to use public transport, unless it is a taxi with appropriate precautions in place.

Anyone working in public facing roles won't be allowed to return to work straight away and children in enhanced passive follow-up will not be allowed to go to school.

They will be asked to wear a face mask and practice social distancing whilst outside their home, including at work.

Pictured: Those in enhanced passive follow-up will be advised to wear a face mask.

Category Three will be very similar to the current Group B, where there is a requirement for arrivals to self-isolate until their day seven test. And Category Four will be the same as Group A, in which travellers have to quarantine for the full 14 days.

However, as part of Phase 5c, travellers from Categories Three and Four will also be asked to take a test on arrival. This will allow the Public Health team to begin contact tracing those who were onboard a plane or boat more quickly, which could, in turn, reduce isolation periods for travellers who came into contact with a positive case on their journey.

"With cases rising around us, there's no doubt that the risk to our community increases," said Chair of the Civil Contingencies Authority, Deputy Gavin St Pier. "There is no way to be completely risk-free, but certainly now is not the time to lower our defences.

"The revisions to Phase 5c maintain similar restrictions for arrivals as are in place now, and add testing on arrival as yet a further measure to our contact tracing capability, which is key to ensuring cases do not spread within our community.

Pictured: On arrival testing facilities have been built at the airport and the harbour.

"We want this model to be one that is sustainable and will see us through the coming months, and so we have sought to build into it a sensible way for allowing less restrictive travel from low-risk destinations for if and when cases begin to come down to much lower levels, knowing that none of our neighbours fall into that category right now, but will do at some stage. Reducing those restrictions for travel very much remains our intention but only when it is safe to do so.”

The CCA is stressing that those concerned about rising cases in the UK, France, Jersey and elsewhere shouldn't see the move to Phase 5c as any less safe than the current travel restrictions.

Based on the current case rates in the UK, all arrivals will still need to isolate for at least seven days.