Guernsey has announced that from tomorrow, Thursday 11th February, any non-essential business that can operate with one staff member only, who comes into no physical contact with any other individual, can return to work.
Support bubbles will also be allowed in specific circumstances, including households with children under one year old and households with single parents and lone adult carers.
These easing of restrictions come ahead of a three-staged approach to exiting lockdown, which is not expecting to commence until 18 February at the earliest.
Also announced today is the move to make face coverings mandatory in indoor public spaces from Saturday 13th February.
Deputy Heidi Soulsby, Vice-President of the Policy & Resources Committee and advisor to the Civil Contingencies Authority (CCA), outlines what the easing of restrictions for lone workers means: “For those who work in indoor trades, this means that lone workers may return to offices, workshops or other premises. This may make it possible, for example, for non-essential retailers to fulfil and deliver or dispatch orders received online as long as they can undertake work without any contact with other individuals, whether colleagues, customers or clients.
“For those who work in outdoor trades, this means that lone workers may return to property and building maintenance, gardening and horticulture, and fishing or other maritime trades as long as they can undertake work without any contact with other individuals, whether colleagues, customers or clients.”
CCA chairman Deputy Peter Ferbrache added: “These immediate changes to lockdown are about getting people back to work whose activity poses little or no risk to further the transmission of the virus. Those people who would ordinarily work alone anyway but haven’t been able to work in the last couple of weeks because their activity has not been considered essential.”
Tomorrow will also see the introduction of support bubbles for those that qualify, which includes:
- Where there is only one adult (this includes households with one adult living alone or one adult and any children under the age of 18);
- Where there is only one adult carer (this means households where this is one adult carer and anyone else living within the household has a disability and requires continuous care);
- Where there is a child under one, regardless of how many other adults are in the household;
- Where there is a child under 5 with a disability that requires continuous care (regardless of how many other adults are in the household); or
- Where an individual needs to move to another household to support their physical and mental wellbeing.
The reintroduction of any two households being able to bubble is due to follow with the commencement of stage 1 of the exit from lockdown strategy.
Stage 1 will also allow small gatherings outside of no more than 5 people and non-public facing work places able to operate with up to 10 members of staff in outdoor sites and 5 staff in indoor sites.
The earliest Guernsey will move to stage 1 is 18th February 2021, subject to further review by the CCA.
Guernsey’s exit from lockdown strategy can be read here.
