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In covid terms, April was indeed a cruel month, with most islanders forced into lockdown at home.
However, Jersey enjoyed some fine spring weather so, with exercise allowed, at least people could grab that couple of hours of sunshine and fresh air.
The roads may have been quiet but the news agenda certainly wasn’t.
Early in the month, work started on building the island’s £14.4m ‘Nightingale’ field hospital, which became one of its fastest-ever major constructions, which ground cleared, foundations laid and giant tent pitched in a matter of days. The new ward included 180 beds, staff facilities and a morgue.
Pictured: In early April, 17 residents of a care home tested positive for covid.
In the first week of April, 17 residents of an unnamed local care home tested positive for covid-19. They were told of isolate, symptomatic staff were told to stay at home, and other residents were tested as a precaution. Care homes would remain at the forward edge of the front line in the battle against the corona virus for the rest of the year.
April was the first time that we would hear the dreaded ‘B’ word publicly mentioned – borrowing; that anathema of generations of Jerseymen and women – when it came to how the Government would fund its covid response. CEO Charlie Parker told a press conference that it would have to turn to the banks to kickstart the economy. Eight months later, that borrowing was an eye-watering £400m and counting.
Pictured: The Government quietly published its 2019 accounts in early April.
Talking of public finances, while all eyes were on the virus crisis engulfing the globes, and increasing the island, the Government quietly published its 2019 annual report and accounts. They weren’t actually a bad set of figures, with income totalling £845m overall, meaning there was an £18m surplus. The government’s investment portfolio also grew by £402m compared to losses of £95m the previous year. Covid, however, would drive a coach and horses through this fiscal prudence.
With lockdown came a new type of criminal: the covid breacher. 45-year-old Jade Hamon won the dubious accolade of being the first islander to be prosecuted under new emergency laws, but a number of other people followed him to the Magistrate’s Court.
In terms of Government strategy, Chief Minister John Le Fondré told a press conference that antibody testing would be key to unlocking the lockdown, as he pledged that people would come before money in deciding when to lift restrictions. He also revealed, halfway through April, that ministers would starting to work on an exit strategy “in the next couple of weeks”. One doubts that “having more than 950 cases in the week of Christmas” would have been part of the plan.
Pictured: When times are tough, what more do you need to cheer you up than triplets rotating on a whirlybird?
Even in the depths of lockdown, we still managed a smile or two. A local mum found innovative ways of keeping her trio of two-year-olds entertained after six weeks in isolation - including transforming her washing line into a fairground carousel. The clip of triplets Willow, Primrose and Jasper Bennett enjoying the homemade was watched and shared thousands of times on social media.
And a local politician's Star Wars-themed face mask won the approval of Luke Skywalker himself, when Mark Hamill replied to post from Deputy Kevin Pamplin, who shared a photo of himself sporting the protective cloth covering made by his daughter's grandmother while enjoying time on the beach over the sunny Easter weekend. The actor thanks the Deputy for his offer of the mask but suggested, with all the magnanimity of a sagacious Jedi warrior, that he gave it to a loved one.
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January, the calm before the storm
March, it hits and we lockdown
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