Statement from the Deputy Medical Officer of Health regarding further restrictions

23 December 2020

​Our current 14 day rate is 933 per 100,000. A large part of this is increased visibility because of our own large scale test and trace system.

But there has been a significant real increase recently, despite a positivity rate of 4-5% which is lower or much lower than in most other jurisdictions.

Over the last few days there may have been a slowing down of cases.

However, we know that normal Christmas activity increases person to person contact indoors and is associated with an increase in respiratory infections which now includes COVID-19. And we now know that there is a more transmissible COVID variant which was first noted in the UK since September and is likely to also be in our Island.

Of course, vaccination has now started and we need to deploy this as rapidly as possible so we must ensure due mitigation.