Covid-19 antibody testing results (FOI)

Request

The recent antibody test results were very clear, however the sample letter sent out was only in English (as shown in the detailed report).

Were any of the correspondence contacted by phone unable to understand the English?

Were any foreign language versions of the letter subsequently sent out? If so, in what languages?

Response

Recruitment for round one of the Community Antibody Testing Survey was launched on 29 April when randomly selected households were contacted by letter. These letters were not addressed to named individuals as the survey sample was drawn from a database of postal addresses. Letters were sent out in English in accordance with Government of Jersey policy. There were no subsequent requests for this letter to be translated.

Where contact telephone numbers associated with the selected addresses were held on file, members of the Coronavirus Helpline team placed calls to the numbers. Each household was invited to participate in the survey if they were still resident at the postal address which had been randomly selected for inclusion.

The Coronavirus Helpline team did not handle any calls where a language barrier prevented Islanders from successfully booking an antibody testing appointment. The Helpline team have access to a live translation service when speaking to customers, if this is required.

Information about the Community Antibody Testing Survey was also published on www.gov.je:

Government of Jersey to begin COVID-19 community antibody testing

This page, as with all other pages on gov.je can be translated into a range of other languages using Google Translate by clicking on the Translate this site link in the page footer.

Based on learning from Round 1 of the Community Antibody Testing Survey held in early May, a personal test results card resource has been developed for use in Round 2. This will be available in English, Portuguese, Polish and Romanian.