New arrivals stopped from visiting care homes

Wednesday 15 July 2020

New arrivals to the island will not be able to visit the hospital, care homes or the prison while they await their test results, after politicians agreed to clarify the travel rules.

Yesterday, the States Assembly passed a proposal by Environment Minister John Young, who added extra measures to those agreed by Members after a lengthy debate two weeks ago.

The 'additional' measures include:

• if a new arrival cannot be tested because too many people are being screened at the same time, he or she has to self-isolate until they are tested.
• People have to travel directly to the accommodation listed in their pre-travel registration form.
• People coming from ‘red’ or ‘amber’ category countries have to self-isolate, even if they have previously had a negative test result.
• The Health Minister has to publish guidance notes for hotels about how guests can safely self-isolate. He also has to give official guidance to LibertyBus and taxi drivers on how to correctly transport passengers from the Airport and Harbour.  
• People cannot visit any hospital, care or nursing home or the Prison until they have completed their self-isolation and/or received a negative test result.

Pictured: Hospital visits are out for anyone self isolating and / or waiting for their Covid test results.

States Members also agreed to keep these arrangements in place for at least six weeks. After that, the Health Minister can decide to revoke, renew or amend them.

Backing the proposal, Chief Minister John Le Fondré said that it "effectively crystallised" the existing border measures in place, but Deputy Young had helped to make them clearer.

The proposition was passed by 40 votes to three.