The East Arm testing facility is being used today to support the testing of essential workers in a range of critical areas.
Supermarket staff and ports staff are amongst those being tested at different intervals today to ensure that these areas are carefully monitored, and to give assurance that staff are able to continue working safely.
Education and Early Years’ settings in Guernsey will remain closed for all of the week starting on Monday (1st February).
This decision has been taken to allow more time for the development of robust plans for a testing system which will facilitate settings reopening to the children of critical workers. Work is now well underway to put this system in place. In the meantime, sites will remain closed to ensure that the risk of Covid-19 being spread through settings is as minimal as possible.
As a result of contact tracing around the recent diagnosed cases of COVID-19 within the Bailiwick, it has been identified that those attending the Festival of Dance, held at Beau Sejour, between the 19th and 22nd of January, may have been exposed to one or more positive cases.
Because of the large numbers of people who attended the festival, the Public Health team asks all who were at that meeting (including participating children and the adults who accompanied them) and members of their households to self-isolate immediately and follow the instructions here: https://covid19.gov.gg/support/protect.
The non-clinical COVID-19 helpline will remain open this weekend (30 + 31 Jan) at the following times to answer any pressing questions you may have:
Saturday
10am - 2pm
Sunday
10 am - 2pm
The testing facility on the East Arm of the North Beach that usually tests vehicle drivers and passengers that arrive in Guernsey by ferry has been adapted to support the Island’s testing for Covid 19.
If you are waiting for a test you may be called by the Welcome Team or the Scheduling Team and offered a test at this facility. The tests are a supervised self-administered swab test of the throat and nose, and will only be offered to islanders who are identified by the Scheduling Team as being suitable for testing at this facility. Only people with appointments will be tested. Self-administered swab tests are not suitable for children under 12, and they will continue to be tested at the testing centre at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.
Testing at this facility will make use of the Travel Tracker. The Travel Tracker has also been adapted so it can recognise people who are from Guernsey. You will need a smart phone or tablet to access Travel Tracker. Even if you have used the Travel Tracker system before you must not register anything until you arrive at the facility. You will need to input a journey into the system, and will be guided through the different inputs required on arrival.
Please note that there will be no public access to the East Arm while testing is taking place.
People working in Guernsey on a license that find themselves out of work because of coronavirus will be able to lawfully remain in the island, thanks to the proactive work of the Committee for Home Affairs.
The Committee has made changes to the Population Management regime to reflect the fact the sudden lockdown the island is now in will have an immediate impact on some businesses.
Dear Islanders,
Tomorrow will mark one week since, for the second time in a year, all of our lives very suddenly turned upside down as we swiftly entered lockdown in response to community seeding of the coronavirus being identified locally.
We’ve known since we exited the last lockdown that this was always a possibility, the risk presented by COVID-19 did not go away. We know also that in having been through this once before, we can do it again. We have significant advantages this time, an expanded on-island testing programme is in place with a highly experienced team running it. Our community understands what to do when we ask them to ‘Stay at Home’, how that helps our pandemic response, and also how to cope while in lockdown, though that’s not to say it’s easy.
We are aware that the unexpected announcement of the lockdown on Saturday 23 January 2021 has impacted on people’s transport arrangements to get to the Community Vaccination Centre (CVC).
To be clear, you are allowed to leave your house to have your vaccine and then return home, in the same way as you can leave your house for urgent medical treatment.
The island’s education and early years settings, including childminders, will be closed on Monday.
There is a strong appetite to get settings reopened as soon as possible, however everyone involved also wants to make sure the decision is made when it is safe to do so, without putting anyone at any unnecessary risk.
The Policy & Resources Committee have today provided clarification about the support recovery clause within the payroll co-funding scheme following feedback from businesses.
