22 July 2020
The Government of Jersey has updated its Countries Risk Assessment, which categorises countries into three groups (green, amber and red) with increasing levels of self-isolation and testing requirements depending on current risk.
The changes in categorisation of countries will take effect from 00:01 Friday 24 July.
The Countries Risk Assessment classification forms part of the Safer Travel Policy, which saw the Island’s borders open for non-essential travel on Friday 3 July. Regular monitoring of countries and decisions on reclassifications is undertaken weekly by the Consultant in Communicable Disease Control, Dr Ivan Muscat.
Countries are assessed using a range of measures including the most recent 14-day case notification rate as published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), recent trends in case notification, in-country testing rates, the frequency of travel between Jersey and country of origin and Jersey’s testing, tracing and health service capacity.
At this time there has been no change to the classification for France, which is listed as a green country and is below the UK in new case notification rates. The Government will continue to monitor the new infection rates for Covid-19 in Brittany, which has seen a recent increase in cases in the Finistere area. The French government is implementing a number of additional public health measures in response to the rise in new cases to contain the virus, such as increased testing and more stringent regulations for the wearing of face coverings.
Deputy Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ivan Muscat said: "We ask all travellers arriving to the Island to declare their travel history as required by the Safer Travel Policy. The Countries Risk Assessment assigns a category to each country with associated testing and isolation requirements.
"The countries and categories are regularly reviewed to determine the level of risk travellers arriving from each country present in order to allow our borders to operate safely. The revisions to the countries made today reflect the international changes to new cases of Covid-19, including where some countries have been successful in suppressing current rates of infections."
A list of countries and their classification is available online.
gov.je