WATCH: Chief Minister admits covid spike communications fell short

Tuesday 02 February 2021

The Government could have communicated better about the winter spike in covid cases to avoid "panicking" and reassure islanders of plans to control rising infections, the Chief Minister has admitted.

Senator John Le Fondré comments came during a press conference last night, where he announced non-essential shops would be allowed to reopen from tomorrow.

They have been closed since Christmas Eve after the number of cases toped 1,000.

With the numbers having reduced since then, the island now has 94 active cases, just one less case than on 4 November 2020.

Video: The Chief Minister and Health Minister spoke at a press conference last night.

Asked by Express whether the Government would be doing anything differently this time around to prevent a similar re-escalation in cases as seen in the last months of 2020, the Chief Minister, Senator John Le Fondré, first repeated the argument that the large number of cases identified was a result of the large number of tests being carried out.  

“I think the key thing we’ve really got to remember is that as we’ve said back in November and that’s still borne out, because our level of testing was so high, we had effectively early warning. Although our numbers went up, maybe it’s like looking through a microscope, if you have a very, very small movement on the slide that’s on the microscope, in the lens, it looks like a very big movement,” he said.

However, he conceded that communications could have been better in November.

He explained that the one thing he would change this time around is the way the Government communicates case numbers and the measures it implements to prevent any further spikes. He also noted that the island is now in a different situation to November as the vaccination programme is now in full force.

Pictured: Senator Le Fondré said again that the increase seen in November and December was a result of high levels of testing.

“There’s no question there was an increase but relative to March or April time when we were doing I think 150 a day, whatever it was, whereas now we kind of at an average of say 10,000 a week, we went up at one point to 13,000, I know we dropped down slightly now. 

“I think the one message there is trying to communicate that in a better way, such that we know we had an issue, we saw acceleration there but also maintain that thing of not panicking i.e. we put the measures in place and there was allowing them to have time to work. I think the communications bit is what more could we be doing around that argument.  

“I know in certain cases…. I heard people on the street actually, I walked past somebody and they absolutely understood it, it was a phone conversation I heard on the line and that was quite appropriate at the time.

“But there are others who simply didn’t get understand that’s how you managed that risk and manage those concerns.”

“But I think in terms of the measures put in place and particularly the difficulty we always have is you cannot point at one specific measures and say that actually achieved everything you want to do,” he added. “If you look there has always been a combination of two or three measures that have succeeded in bringing the numbers down.”

Pictured: The Chief Minster said the decision to delay the reopening was due to the 250 potential direct contacts for the two cases first identified in the retail supply chain. 

The Chief Minister also denied that the Government’s risk appetite had changed since the beginning of the pandemic, even though they delayed the opening of non-essential shops over a cluster in the supply chain that yielded just eight cases, while previous ‘lockdown-lite’ restrictions had been introduced after cases topped 330 with thousands of direct contacts.

Senator Le Fondré explained that the decision to delay the reopening was due to the 250 potential direct contacts for the two cases first identified in the retail supply chain. 

“It was a significant number of direct contacts that came out of those two individuals which is why we felt it was on the cautionary approach we try to take, that we felt it was appropriate to do so,” he said.

“On the balance of risks, I don’t think the risk appetite has changed but we are also bearing in mind that we’ve got to all the way through to keep the balance between the health impacts of covid, the overall wellbeing and obviously that ties into the economic impact as well. 

“It’s all those three things together but obviously now with the added challenge of where we are in the vaccination programme.” 

For the Health Minister, Deputy Richard Renouf, more emphasis should be put how much harm covid can cause and how important it is to follow the guidance.

Pictured: The Health Minister Deputy Richard Renouf said people need to understand the harm covid can cause.

“What happened after November was very serious and we’ve been very fortunate to come through that so far but we still face huge risks and we are assuming that the UK variant is in the island which enhances those risks,” he said.

“It is important to proceed slowly with the reconnection, to observe all the guidance and all the hygiene measures to keep ourselves and our community as safe as can be.” 

New variants of the virus still haven't been formally identified in the island, but Health services are still working on the assumption that they are here.

Samples have been sent away weekly, and faced significant delays. It is unlikely, however, that Jersey will be acquiring its own kit to test for variants to speed up this process, Ministers said in response to questions from Express last night.

They explained that are only four places in the UK that can test for variants, and Jersey has a good relationship with at least one of them. 

Pictured: There are currently no plans to bring equipment to Jersey to test for variants.

“I think at this stage we are still doing limited testing through Porton Down,” the Chief Minister said.

“I rather suspect the difficulty there will be the sophistication of the machinery you need to actually get it on island, that’s not a discussion I’ve had but equally we’ve got some measures in place to try and identify and that is involving all financial solutions.

“Looking ahead, let’s just see how we progress over the next few months and how society changes, I think that’s properly a little bit too early to determine. We do have measures in place on a limited basis to get the very specialised testing done, that is off island at this stage.”