The Director of Public Health, Dr Nicola Brink, has announced today that 4 new cases of COVID-19 were identified through contact tracing yesterday afternoon.
All 4 cases are connected to positive cases that were identified in travellers returning to the Bailiwick through our contact tracing programme. There is still no current evidence of community seeding.
Dr Brink said:
'The identification of these 4 additional cases demonstrates that our track and trace systems are working as they should.
The detection of these cases has been through a combination of testing of family members self-isolating as a group, together with the identification of a new infection in a person living in the same household as a previously identified case.
As I said yesterday, it is essential, now more than ever that people to follow the self-isolation rules to the letter. It is also essential that those choosing to self-isolate in households away from other household members follow meticulous hygiene measures in respect of any areas you pass through on the way to your self-isolation accommodation e.g. sanitising door handles, handrails etc and ensuring you follow the requirements in respect of laundry.'
If you're self-isolating in the same household as others who are not self-isolating you must follow the guidance on gov.gg/coronavirus and ensure you do not mix, and that you very carefully manage things like shared toilet facilities to avoid any possible spread of the virus. It is not acceptable to cut corners or come up with your own 'workarounds', this will only put you and others at risk.
If you have any doubts about your ability to manage the self-isolation requirements of having someone isolating away from the rest of their family/friends in the same property please consider whether alternative accommodation should be found for those needing to isolate.
For those in a household who have travellers isolating away from people in a separate part of the house and are not, therefore, in a 'bubble', please remember that during the entire self-isolation period NO ONE is allowed to visit the household except for the following:
- People that live there as long as they are separate from you
- A person or persons that are providing essential care or medical help to someone in the household
- A person or persons that are entering the property in the case of an emergency, for example emergency plumbing repairs
You cannot, for example, have a family member isolating in a separate part of a property and invite friends and family round to celebrate Christmas or New Year.
If you are unwell, please stay at home. We know it will be hard as everyone wants to come together to celebrate, enjoy themselves after this very unusual year but we ask you to stop and think. It's the holidays, but COVID-19 does not stop for the holidays.
Dr Brink said:
'Whilst we are still learning more about the new variant, we do know is it is up to 70% more transmissible that SARS-CoV-2. One case brought into the Bailiwick that isn't detected will pose a significant risk.
This is a reminder to be vigilant and stay safe. The identification of this new variant is extremely serious.
Stop and think how your actions might impact on the rest of our community.
We can't let Christmas and New Year undo all the hard work of our community. We are asking our community to remain vigilant and stay safe.'
