Jersey’s Health Minister: “I don’t know what Jersey’s R rate is”
Jersey’s Health Minister says he does not know what the current R rate in the island is, because officers are too busy working on other things.
When asked in a special parliamentary question time, Deputy Richard Renouf repeated the reproduction rate range of 1.6 to 2, from around two weeks ago, which does not reflect the exponential rise in cases in Jersey in the past fortnight.
He also said it was too early to judge whether recent measures taken by the government to get a grip on growing numbers had been effective.
That was a message reiterated by the Chief Minister, Senator John Le Fondré, as part of the one-hour long ‘questions without notice’ session.
He said the impact of measures introduced by the government, including restrictions on the size of gatherings, the hospitality lockdown and a return to two metre social distancing, will only become apparent this weekend.
He added Jersey’s level of testing is why the number of positive cases is so high.