01 June 2020
The Government is to provide a daily update on the number of active cases as part of its regular publication of Covid-19 statistics. There are currently two active cases.
The daily statistics already include the number of negative and positive tests, pending results, the number of people who have died and recovered, and demographic information about those affected. From today, those statistics will also include the number of active cases in the Island.
A case is considered active if someone has tested positive for Covid-19 through a PCR test and is still showing symptoms. Patients must be free of symptoms for at least 48 hours to be considered recovered, as long as this is at least 7 days since symptoms began.
Anyone without symptoms who receives a positive PCR test result will be considered an active case until 14 days after their swab. However, as PCR tests can pick up viral material that is not active (known as “dead” virus), people will also be considered recovered if they have a positive IgG antibody test, as this shows they have not had the active virus for some time.
The calculation is not a simple subtraction, as a person can test positive for Covid-19 but then die from a different cause, which means Covid-19 would not be listed on the death certificate.
The Minister for Health and Social Services said: “We are always working to provide more information, so Islanders can understand the progress we have been making in our response to Covid-19. I am glad we have developed a process to provide robust statistics on the number of known active cases in the Island, and I look forward to the day we can say there are no active cases known to the Health and Community Services department.”
Coronavirus tests and cases
gov.je