Travel testing update to be announced this week

Tuesday 19 October 2021

Updates to the Government’s travel testing policy and winter strategy for dealing with covid are due to be unveiled on Thursday.

Chief Minister Senator John Le Fondré will be appearing alongside Health Minister Deputy Richard Renouf, Economic Development Minister Senator Lyndon Farnham and Deputy Medical Officer of Health Dr Ivan Muscat at a press conference on Thursday.

Starting at 12:30, the conference will be live-streamed on Facebook and Twitter.

The island’s border testing regime has been “under review” for more than a month, with Ministers considering whether to suspend PCR testing for travellers who are fully vaccinated against covid.

In late September, Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Murray Norton said business leaders were calling for the Government to “move on” and make a decision.

He said that delaying is not only “making Jersey less attractive than it could be by having ease of access for inbound travellers”, but also costing taxpayers dearly.

“Chamber’s got a fairly clear and direct view from its members: it’s time to get on with the next stage of where we are. We’ve certainly moved on from a pandemic and we’re now into a period of recovery, and that period of recovery must include where we go on testing,” he said.