Minister admits new plan will lead to more deaths

Deputy Richard Renouf, the Minister for Health and Social Services, has said Jersey's new plan will ‘mean more people in hospital’ and ‘an increase in the number of deaths’.

The comments came as the Minister said the easing of lockdown will happen across three ‘carefully-calibrated’ levels.

These levels will lead to a wider movement of people, which means more are likely to get the coronavirus.

The Minister warned though that stricter measures could be enforced if there is an increase that is too quick.

The first is to scale down delay measures. This means easing stay at home orders and looking at school closures.

Deputy Richard Renouf said this will done over a period of ‘many weeks’ with gradual changes being under constant review.

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The second level will be stepping up containing measures. Increasing the number of tests, quickly identifying clusters and improving their ability to trace those who have come in to contact with people who have coronavirus.

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Finally the government plan to increase the support for extremely vulnerable people.

The Safe Exit Framework can be seen on Jersey’s Governments website.

• Coronavirus: All the information and advice for the Channel Islands in one place