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More countries added to amber and red categories

More countries added to amber and red categories

Wednesday 29 July 2020

More countries added to amber and red categories

Wednesday 29 July 2020


The Government has updated its covid-19 risk rating for four countries, moving the Bahamas and Belgium to amber and Argentina to red from tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia will move from red to amber.

Jersey uses a traffic light system to categorise jurisdictions as either green, amber or red and applies different requirements for self-isolation and testing depending on their risk. 

The changes mean that anyone returning from the Bahamas, Belgium and Saudi Arabia from tomorrow will have to undergo at least two tests on arrival, or quarantine for 14 days.

Those returning from Argentina will have to get tested on arrival and self-isolate for 14 days.

The news comes just two days after Spain's risk rating increased to amber.

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Pictured: Dr Ivan Muscat, the Deputy Medical Officer of Health.

The Deputy Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ivan Muscat, is monitoring the classification of all countries and reassessing them regularly.

“We’ll continue to closely monitor the situation in all countries and will reclassify their risk as the evidence demonstrates this is necessary," he explained.

Responding to questions from Express earlier this week, Dr Muscat said that consideration has been given to classifying different regions separately when there is a high level of covid activity centred in one area, but not others.

This, he said, could include splitting up the UK, which is currently all classified as 'green', as each nation has its own approach to managing the spread of the virus.

He noted, however, that it may be more challenging in the context of areas like France or mainland Spain, particularly as detailed and up-to-date regional breakdowns of case numbers can be difficult to obtain.

Countries are risk-assessed using a range of measures. The most important is the up-to-date 14-day case notification rate published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the recent trends in case notification.

Other measures that are considered include in-country testing rates, the frequency of travel between Jersey and the country of origin, and Jersey’s testing, tracing and health service capacity.

Under Jersey's travel guidance system, countries are generally designated green if they have 0-25 cases per 100,000 people, amber for 25-120, and red for more than 120.

CLICK HERE for more information about Jersey's travel guidance.

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