Social distancing reintroduced and events cancelled

Saturday 23 January 2021

All events and gatherings should be immediately cancelled, the Civil Contingencies Authority has said, and social distancing has been introduced with immediate effect after four cases of community seeding emerged.

The four new positive cases of Covid-19 were confirmed yesterday evening in Guernsey and are not travel-related.

There is concern that it is not immediately clear how these four individuals contracted the virus, as none are directly from travel or the contacts of known cases or travellers.  Contract tracing is continuing to determine whether there is a link between the cases and whether these cases are linked or this is as a result of wider community seeding.

In a rapidly evolving situation, the Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink is advising all those who were intending to hold gatherings and events of any kind to cancel them.

Pictured: Care homes and the hospital are being instructed not to allow any visitors as of now.

All islanders are told to adopt social distancing measures.

Supermarkets are being advised to reintroduce social distancing measures as quickly as possible and Islanders should follow that guidance for any essential shopping today.

The news comes after months of hope and the scheduled opening of Guernsey's Community Vaccination Centre on Monday, which had been described as a "game-changer" less than 24 hours ago.

The CCA will be holding an urgent live Covid-19 Press Briefing at midday today.