WATCH: Minister keen to bring reopening dates forward

Monday 08 March 2021

The Economic Development Minister has said he is keen to bring some of the dates in Jersey's reopening 'roadmap' forward if covid case numbers remain low, while his fellow Ministers remain more wary.

Senator Lyndon Farnham’s comments came on the day the Government revealed what was described as a “cautious” plan to resume activities which have been banned over the last few months.

On Friday, he appeared alongside Chief Minister Senator John Le Fondré, Health Minister Deputy Richard Renouf, and Deputy Medical Officer for Health Dr Ivan Muscat to reveal Jersey’s covid roadmap.

Video: Senator Farnham was one of the Ministers at Friday's press conference.

Under the plans, gyms, household mixing indoors, as well as singing indoors for up to 10 people, will be either reopened or resume from 15 March.

Three other stages will then follow on 12 April, 10 May and 14 June, with the latter seeing the reopening of nightclubs, theatres and cinemas as well as live music being permitted along with larger events, subject to guidance.

Senator Le Fondré described the approach as “cautious”, due to the new variables of the vaccination programme and the existence of variants of the virus.

“We want to be as clear as we possibly can, the objective here is not to have to go backwards and not see a surge as we have seen in the past,” he added. “If we do see a change in numbers, we will have to react, of course, accordingly but we hope that by talking a cautious approach we can avoid that and get as many people vaccinated as possible.” 

Pictured: Senator Farnham suggested Dr Ivan Muscat didn't share his optimism.

But, following a question from Express, Senator Farnham shared his own more "optimistic" vision, which he said might not be shared by Dr Muscat or other medical experts. 

“I think I understand islanders will be looking at the figures, looking at the success we’ve had in recent days and weeks and asking why we are being quite cautious, and I think the key point is that we want to keep going forward, we don’t want to have to move back,” he said.

“Now I know Dr Muscat and I might be at a slight juxtaposition because we’ve had very healthy debate about this going through and we listen to the advice very carefully, but I would very much hope that we would be able to bring some of those dates forward, subject to continuation to the very good figures we’re seeing now.”  

“Hospitality has been open for almost two weeks, 12 days, and there has been little to no impact, numbers have continued to fall and I think that’s a very good sign,” he then added.

CLICK TO ENLARGE: Ministers unveiled Jersey's covid roadmap on Friday.

“And, of course, the next stage with gyms and household mixing, the following two to three weeks after that are going to be crucial so I’d like to be more optimistic, I’ll continue to work close with my colleagues and keep challenging on behalf of the economy and islanders and hopefully we can continue to find that balance.” 

The Health Minister said he would like to be optimistic like his colleague, but urged people to be “realistic” too and to not be surprised when case numbers increase over the next few weeks.

“We’ve got to this good position we’re in at a time when the island has been largely closed, people have not been mixing in sports and in restaurants, hospitality venues and it’s brought us, thanks to islanders’ efforts to this place,” he said.

Pictured: The Health Minister said cases are likely to rise over the next few weeks.

“There’s nothing covid likes more than people gathering together but we need to because we are social animals, and we want to restore that normality. But we must not be surprised if it does result in numbers increasing and the challenge will be to control those numbers and return ourselves, through the road map, to that degree of normality, so it’s that careful balancing exercise.

“Please don’t expect to see numbers stay in single figures and go to zero, we will be managing the numbers, but they may be greater than they are now.”

Following Friday's roadmap announcement, updated guidance on gatherings and events has been published on the Government's website. CLICK HERE to read it.