29 July 2020
The Government of Jersey has updated its Covid-19 risk assessments for four countries.
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 announced today mean that from 00:01 on Thursday 30 July the Bahamas and Belgium will move from green to amber; Argentina will move from amber to red and Saudi Arabia will move from red to amber.
The Deputy Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ivan Muscat, monitors the classification of all countries and reassesses them regularly. He said: “We’ll continue to closely monitor the situation in all countries and will reclassify their risk as the evidence demonstrates this is necessary.”
The Countries Risk Assessment classification forms part of the Safer Travel Policy, which saw the Island’s borders open for non-essential travel on Friday 3 July.
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.
- a country with 0-25 cases per 100,000 every 14 days is categorised as green
- a country with 25-119 cases per 100,000 every 14 days is categorised as amber
- a country with 120 or more cases per 100,000 every 14 days is categorised as red
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.
gov.je