COVID-19 updates

Islanders aged 75 and over, have until the 30 June 2022 to get their COVID-19 Spring Booster.

The spring booster programme has been delivered in accordance with the guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and was offered to islanders over the age of 75 and those who are immunosuppressed.

Everyone in these cohorts has been sent a letter inviting them to receive the booster. Anyone who believes they are in one of these groups, but who has not received an invite, is encouraged to email vcc@gov.gg to discuss their circumstances.

Read the media release.

From Thursday 2 June 2022, the use of masks in health and social care buildings will be stepped down in line with further de-escalation of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) precautions for COVID-19.

Read the media release

The COVID-19 helpline, which was set up early in 2020 to provide support and advice to Islanders as we navigated our way through the COVID-19 pandemic, is to close at weekends from 1 June 2022 due to the low number of calls received on a Saturday and Sunday.

The clinical and non-clinical helplines (Tel 01481 220001) will continue to be available weekdays (excluding bank holidays) between 09.00 and 16.00.

Islanders who need to notify Public Health of a positive LFT can do so using the online form https://www.gov.gg/covidnotification.

Clinical questions regarding COVID-19 can still be sent to publichealth@gov.gg and all non-clinical questions can still be sent to covid19enquiries@gov.gg

Tomorrow (28 May) will be the last Vaccination Clinic to be held at the Community Vaccination Centre (CVC) at Beau Sejour.

Nearly 80% of those eligible for a Spring Booster have now received their 4th dose of vaccine and the numbers attending each clinic mean there is no longer a need for the CVC to be based in Beau Sejour. This means that the leisure centre can now be handed back to the community for other purposes.

Read the media release

Further changes are being made to the island’s COVID-19 testing strategy and guidance for positive cases, as part of the continued and planned de-escalation of measures. The changes will come into effect from Sunday (1st May).

Please read the media release below as it explains the latest guidance for:

• People who have tested positive
• The use of LFTs
• Face coverings
• Education

Read the media release.

If you’re over the age of 75, or are immunosuppressed, and you’ve received an invite to get a spring booster you are now able to book a vaccine appointment at your GP practice as an alternative to the Community Vaccination Centre. You can of course still book to have your jab at the CVC if you would prefer.   

The team running the vaccination programme have been working closely with colleagues in Primary Care (the three GP practices) with the private providers taking on a larger role in the programme in recent months. Primary Care initially focused on the immunosuppressed cohort and care home residents, but now have capacity to vaccinate remaining over-75s who have not yet booked in for their spring booster.

Anyone who has already booked an appointment to receive their booster at the CVC is asked to keep it in place.

Read the media release.

Falling Bailiwick Covid case numbers and associated PEH staff absences due to Covid has enabled HSC to remove most of the restrictions on visitors to the hospital.

Since 15 March patients in the PEH have only been allowed one visit by one person each visiting session, other than a few exceptions. From today, patients on the majority of wards will no longer be limited to just one visitor. The exception to this will be if circumstances on a particular ward require there to be temporary restrictions in place.

Read the media release

Education has provided updated guidance for schools on COVID-19 mitigations that will be in place after the upcoming Easter holidays. These represent a further relaxation of some of the measures that have been in place.

When education returns after the Easter holidays, there will be no routine surveillance testing taking place across settings. Students and staff are still encouraged to take an LFT if they are symptomatic.

However, all students and staff are asked to take an LFT the day before they return to schools after Easter and another on the day of return.

Face coverings are still expected in certain situations, such as on school transport and in secondary and post-16 classrooms, just for the first week back, as precautionary measures.

Read the media release.

The Covid testing tent at the PEH is being taken down this week, culminating two years of mass PCR testing.

Senior HSC representatives joined several members of the scheduling and testing teams in the tent on Tuesday (29 March) to recognise their collective efforts in delivering more than 200,000 PCR tests since the beginning of the pandemic.

Read the media release

Further changes are being made to the island’s COVID-19 testing strategy as we to continue moving forward while living responsibly with the virus.

The changes will come into effect from this Friday (1st April).

Read the media release