More transmissible UK variant identified in Guernsey

Tuesday 09 February 2021

All four cases of Covid-19 identified on the day before lockdown have come back positive for the UK variant of Covid-19, confirming the presence of the more transmissible strain of the virus in Guernsey.

Those positive cases - which could not be explained and were the main trigger behind the island going into lockdown - were confirmed in a batch of tests that were sent away for genetic testing.

Public Health Director Dr Nicola Brink said this information about the 'Kent variant', which her department received early on Monday, was unsurprising, given how quickly the virus had spread through the island. 

"That fits in with what we have seen," she said of the news. "We suspected it was caused by a variant and now that has been confirmed."

Dr Brink confirmed that further samples, picked up on different days, have since been sent away to the UK for genetic sequencing tests. 

Pictured: The latest testing results published at around 11:00 today. 

There are currently 366 known active cases of Covid-19. There have been 21 new cases found in the last day and 17 people have recovered.

There are 10 patients with Covid-19 in hospital, two of whom are receiving intensive care support.

Meanwhile, there will be a further review of lockdown measures today, CCA Chairman Peter Ferbrache confirmed, ahead of Wednesday's briefing.

He used his speech ay yesterday's briefing to try once again to dampen speculation over the cause of the current outbreak, rebutting comments he has reportedly received suggesting that his committee is "hiding" information.

"We are trying to hide absolutely nothing," he retorted. "We are giving good news as well as bad news, but we're quite prepared to give bad news," he said.