Broadly Reasonable and Successful

The review into the island’s handling of Covid-19 pandemic has found that the approach to the pandemic was broadly a success.

Kate Brunner KC’s report has been published today.

Looking at the number of deaths, the economic cost and the time in lockdown, the review found that the island response was ‘was reasonable and was successful’.

It says: ‘The island’s approach developed into an elimination strategy: seeking to keep the virus out of the community entirely through a combination of strict border controls, testing and isolating those who were or may have been infected, and clamping down hard on outbreaks.

‘That was an unusual strategy in the West: most jurisdictions accepted that there would be a level of community transmission. Other jurisdictions that pursued an elimination strategy such as New Zealand and Singapore also had low death rates.’

However, the review also finds that there were ‘some significant issues’.

It founds that the emergency planning was ‘not adequate’ and there was ‘too much focus on following the UK during the early pandemic’.

The report adds: ‘The social care sector was not well-supported, and there were many outbreaks in care homes, including, most significantly, at Abbotswood Nursing Home in April 2020.

‘Insufficient attention was paid to borders, which were the island’s point of vulnerability, and the Steam Packet outbreak in early 2021 was one avoidable result of that inattention. Recovery, including educational recovery, has not been appropriately prioritised.’

It adds that while the response was broadly successful, the way in which the gov was managed was ‘high-risk and could have led to far worse outcomes’.

We will have more on this today at Gef.im.