WATCH: Significant relaxation for travellers without both jabs

Thursday 08 July 2021

The ‘traffic light’ travel system will be scrapped and travellers who have not been fully vaccinated will only have to isolate until the result of their first test from next Tuesday.

Those who are not fully vaccinated will then only need a single follow-up test on day eight.

Meanwhile, fully vaccinated islanders will only be tested at the border. They will not have to isolate or undergo any follow-up testing.

However, that will not be the case for individuals that have been in a country on the UK’s travel ban list in the past 10 days – they will have to undergo three tests and isolate for 10 days. 

Ministers announced in a press conference this afternoon that they were making the changes in light of vaccination levels in Jersey and the low numbers of islanders in hospital. As of today, there are 820 cases and four people in hospital.

During the conference, Dr Muscat said these were a mix of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people but would not comment further to protect their privacy.

Video: The significant travel relaxations were announced at a press conference today.

Chief Minister Senator John Le Fondré emphasised that Jersey has had “an extremely low positivity rate through our borders with only 0.4% test positivity.” 

The full set of changes coming into effect on Tuesday 13 July are: 

• countries and regions will no longer be assessed based on a green, amber or red traffic light system 
• testing and isolation requirements will be based on passenger vaccination status 
• passengers who are fully vaccinated will only be required to have one test on arrival and will not be required to isolate 
• passengers who are not fully vaccinated will be required to be tested upon arrival (day 0) and on day 8, and will need to isolate until their first negative test result
• children aged 11-17 will be required to be tested upon arrival (day 0) and on day 8, and will need to isolate until their first negative test result
• children aged 10 and under will not be required to complete a pre-departure registration form, undergo testing on arrival or be required to isolate
• enhanced testing and isolation will remain for the very small number of passengers who have visited very high-risk countries (those subject to the UK Government International restricted list) in the 10 days prior to arrival, regardless of vaccination status
• all passengers travelling to Jersey aged 11 years and over will still be required to complete a pre-departure registration form 48 hours before travelling
• passengers who do not wish to participate in the testing programme will be required to isolate for 14 days.

Guernsey recently announced that it was no longer requiring fully vaccinated travellers to take a test at the border.

Senator Le Fondré said Jersey had decided to keep this requirement in order to keep an eye on variants, when asked by Express.

"It is around a simplification, but it is also around just keeping an element of control at the borders, so that if some new variant appears internationally somewhere that we are in a position to detect it," he said.

Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr Ivan Muscat MBE echoed this, adding: "There is at the moment a perceived need to have some control at the border - variants are important in that regard - and all positives at the border are sent for sequencing to keep an eye on what’s coming in. 

"We also of course keep an eye on what’s being noted in other countries, because it gives us a very good picture of the variants in other countries.

He continued: "Are we going to continue with this forever? The answer is almost certainly not, but I can’t give you a timeframe for when this is going to stop, and as always this is uncharted territory so we’re taking small steps at a time rather than large steps suddenly."

Turning to Jersey's current high numbers of people with covid, Senator Le Fondré said that these cases were "predominantly amongst those aged 12 to 30 years old, and amongst this demographic, the effects of covid are significantly less severe."

Pictured: Test positivity rates over the past year.

He continued: "When we compare case positivity against the previous wave in December 2020, you will see that positivity among the older double vaccinated has significantly reduced. Among those over 40, it is less than 2% and in those aged over 60, it is less than 1%, and this shows the vaccination programme is working."

He added that 82% of those aged over 18 have had a first dose of the vaccine, over 63% had received a second dose, and 94% of those aged 50 or over have received their second dose.