Coronavirus: Emergencies Council to meet

The Emergencies Council will meet next week to discuss Jersey’s ongoing management of Coronavirus.

The Chief Minister, Senator John Le Fondré, will chair the meeting on Thursday 12 March which will review plans on how the Island would manage cases of Coronavirus as well as how schools and businesses would operate if the virus arrived in Jersey.

This follows a week of briefings to Ministers and States Members. On Thursday 5 March, the Government hosted the first industry representatives briefing attended by commercial, hospitality, digital, transport, utilities and supermarket bodies. Government will continue to work closely with these bodies to offer advice on their business continuity planning and is providing messages to their employees and stakeholders. Bespoke advice to the business community will be provided in a special section of the Government’s website. This will include a business continuity toolkit.

There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Jersey and none of the other Channel Islands have declared any cases. A total of 50 tests have been carried out on people in Jersey who were experiencing similar symptoms to the virus, but all have been negative.

Since the outbreak of Coronavirus, Jersey has been closely monitoring the situation with contingency planning being developed across government and its partners.

Senator Le Fondré said: "The Government of Jersey has been holding regular meetings to keep ahead of the global situation and to ensure that the Island is ready if a case was to arrive here. Plans have been in place for some time to ensure, that if we are needed to deal with a case of Coronavirus, that our efforts are well coordinated.

"Next Thursday’s meeting of the Emergencies Council will further review our management of the situation. In the meantime, the best advice to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus is through Islanders washing their hands."