Call for UK regions to be ranked separately for travel

Tuesday 18 August 2020

A politician has joined calls for Jersey to take a regional approach to UK travel to stop local covid-19 cases rising.

The UK is currently a ‘green’ country on the island’s traffic light list, which means that inbound travellers are not required to self-isolate. However, there are significant regional variations within and between the four countries of the union.

Deputy Kirsten Morel, who is ​Chairman of the Economic Affairs Scrutiny Panel, wants the Government to stop treating the UK as a single entity and vary arrival requirements depending on a passenger’s home address. 

“My concern is, as the number of cases in Jersey is rising, we need to protect ourselves more, and one of the principal ways we can do that is through travel,” he said.

Pictured: Deputy Kirsten Morel wants Jersey's travel rules to take account of UK regional variations in Covid cases.

“We know that the north-west of England and Yorkshire have more cases than the south, but we also know that most people who have tested positive on arrival in Jersey have not come from Liverpool or Manchester airports.

“Therefore, it seems we need to look at a passenger’s residential address rather than their departure airport. Some people have argued that that would require some expensive verification process but why can’t we just ask people to bring a utility bill when they travel? To me, that would be a simple solution.

“We not only need to protect people in Jersey; if our cases rise, we may well find ourselves appearing on other countries’ amber lists, and that would obviously affect our own ability to travel.

“We need to keep an eye on things and we need to be flexible when it comes to the UK.” 

At Friday’s Government briefing, Deputy Medical Office of Health Dr Ivan Muscat reiterated that this approach may be necessary if UK regional imbalances persisted.

Pictured: Deputy Medical Officer of Health Dr Ivan Muscat agrees that the UK regions may have to be considered differently but basing it on a passenger's address will be difficult.

He said: “We may need to start thinking about the risk that pertains to individuals who come from the northwest and Yorkshire. We have been thinking about this in relation to the airport of departure rather than their residential address, which would be much more difficult to operationalise.

“We need to take into account where our positives are coming from before making a final decision. It may very well be, for example, that most of the positives in the northwest are not people who are likely to travel.”