Nearly 8,000 mask exemptions downloaded since March

Tuesday 08 June 2021

Nearly 8,000 certificates and printable cards exempting islanders from wearing masks have been downloaded from the Government website since March - with more than 3,500 last month alone, according to new figures obtained by Express.

The statistics, released following a request under the Freedom of Information Law, appear to demonstrate a surge in interest in recent months in parallel to the rising numbers of islanders being vaccinated and plateauing covid case numbers locally.

The Government's mask exemption form web page only requires users to confirm they have legitimate reason, either medical or distress-related, for not wearing a mask by clicking the ‘yes’ button - they do not need to provide any medical proof of any conditions which may interfere with their ability to use a mask.

Between 1 March and 1 June 2021, 4,100 mask exemption cards, and 3,571 exemption certifications were downloaded from the Government website’s application page, totalling 7,671 downloads.

Pictured: Downloads peaked in May for both the certificate and printable card.

The figure was nearly 5,000 more than the actual total number of people that viewed the application page between March and June, which stands at 2,841 ‘unique page views'.

The reason for this difference was said to be because multiple passes were downloaded by the same users in one session. 

The download activity for the page peaked last month, with 1,917 users downloading exemption application cards, and 1,594 users downloading certificates. 

Though the application page has been up since December 2020, the Government said they could only give figures from March, as the data “is held on a hosted environment outside of the standard analytics reporting [March and] stored for 90 days… to retrieve anything prior to this will incur a cost to collect.” 

However, they disclosed that the related advisory section - ‘Exempt from wearing a mask’ - on their website had had 20,028 views since its launch on 1 December 2020 to 1 June 2021. 

The issue of mask exemptions has been a talking point in the island since masks were first made mandatory for indoor places – currently, the fine for a breach is up to £1,000 for anyone over 12 who does not have a medical exemption or a “reasonable excuse.”

There is currently no confirmed date for the removal of mask restrictions from listed public indoor spaces - Express has asked the Government for an update, and is awaiting a response.