Scientists to discuss lifting travel restrictions next week

Thursday 11 March 2021

The Government’s scientific advisers are meeting early next week to discuss how the island should open its borders to travel, it has been confirmed.

Following their meeting on Monday, the view of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Cell (STAC) will then be passed on to Ministers for a decision on how restrictions will be lifted, with an announcement expected to follow later in the week.

However, despite low numbers in Jersey, with eight known cases, any decision will hinge on the covid situation in other countries.

At the moment, every country is classified as ‘red’ in Jersey’s traffic light approach, which requires inbound passengers to isolate until they have had a negative PCR test ten days after arriving.

Travel out of the island is also highly restricted by the rules imposed by other countries. Non-essential travel into France, for instance, is currently banned, while the UK has imposed strict quarantine restrictions involving hotel stays for certain countries.

Speaking at a Scrutiny hearing yesterday, STAC Chair and Medical Director Patrick Armstrong MBE said that the group had already started to discuss travel.

“It is clearly one of the most important areas that we have to discuss,” he said.

“Internally, we have low numbers and relatively low risk but it is when we potentially start to seed the Island with people coming from outside - from areas that might have higher rates of covid - we will then obviously increase the risk across the island of seeing rising numbers.” 

Pictured: Medical Director and STAC chair, Patrick Armstrong MBE.

“There are further discussions this coming Monday within STAC with a view to provide advice to CAM [the Competent Authorities Ministers] next week on how that should progress.

“A lot of it will depend on what is happening in other jurisdictions and the rates in countries where people are coming from, and we will have to be responsive to that.”

Dr Armstrong added that STAC would also be discussing the boundaries of the traffic light system used to determine the covid risk of countries. However, Ministers will have the final say on this - last year, they decided to relax measures for 'green zone' arrivals, much to STAC's dismay.

Last week, the Deputy Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ivan Muscat MBE, said that STAC were also discussing the issue of vaccination passports that may become a prerequisite for travel to some countries. 

A quarantine-free ‘air bridge’ between Jersey and Guernsey also remains under discussion, having previously been mooted by Ministers in both islands.

Meanwhile, Condor today announced that passengers on its high-speed ferry services will no longer be required to show evidence of a negative PCR test when it hopes sailings will resume on 21 May.

Pictured: Condor will not require passengers to prove they have tested negative for covid when the company hopes high-speed services resume in May.

Operations Director Elwyn Dop said: “We stepped up safety protocols earlier this year to protect those on our conventional ships and keep freight shipments secure which was absolutely the right decision at the time.

“The encouraging news of a reduction in cases and a ramping up of vaccinations in the UK has provided us with the confidence that these tests will not be needed for travel on our passenger ferries when we restart, although we will retain this requirement on Clipper and Goodwill.”

He added that the company’s decision had no impact on the need for testing on arrivals in Guernsey and Jersey set by the islands’ governments.