Do you know that you can holiday in Jersey, in a hotel, from 26th April?

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• Anna says:

  31 Mar31 March 05:44

  I’m not sure what the rationale behind this is – e.g. we live in one area, work in other areas and child attends school in a different area again. Far more time spent with other people outside the area we actually live in!

• Track says:

  31 Mar31 March 05:48

  The welcoming answer from residents: do not come here.

• Alex says:

  31 Mar31 March 05:48

  I live in Jersey and it’s worth flagging that this isn’t the system used last summer (which categorised England as one region) but that used in the Autumn (which as Rob notes works on a local authority basis). The point to flag here is that the rates required to be amber and green are both very low (120 cases per 100,000 per 14 days for amber, and 50 cases for green). The 14 day metric means you can’t just go on the NHS number which is based on the last seven days – the number for Jersey’s purposes is likely to be around double that.

  The big problem with this, in the context of mass testing, is that areas constantly move between categories and it’s very difficult to make plans (especially non-refundable ones). The area you live in might change category the morning before you fly to Jersey.

  I hope that lots of people make it out here but definitely worth a note of caution – I wouldn’t commit to plans I couldn’t cancel at short notice.

  • lumma says:

    31 Mar31 March 06:12

    Looking at that, most of London will be amber, and the parts that aren’t will likely fluctuate a lot between green and amber.

    I don’t think it’s worth the risk.

    • Rob says:

      31 Mar31 March 09:23

      Much of London inc my bit is at 20 per 100k. Some bits of London are reporting zero cases at the moment in some weeks. I mean … I could literally stand on Kings Road all day and not have a single infected person walk past me, let alone infect me, based on those numbers.

      • Chris Heyes says:

        31 Mar31 March 10:06

        Rob I’m sure last Summer you said something similar about the whole of London
        except then it was almost nobody in London was infected
        Cant remember your exact wording (& cant be bothered to look it up)
        How did London get so bad later, flights weren’t fetching it in I remember you saying lol
        Maybe all the Northerner’s swarmed into London, dirty beasts how dare they ?lol
        Hope its gone down to negatable soon, but I doubt it

      • lumma says:

        31 Mar31 March 14:31

        As the person above my comment said, it’s 50 per 100k over 14 days, the 20ish per 100k in Kensington and Chelsea is over 7 days and it doesn’t take many cases to push it up. For the 7 days up to March 23rd K&C was 24.3 per 100k – which was from only 38 cases in a week in the borough. The most recent rate was 29.5 per 100k (2 days later) from only 9 more cases in a week.

  • planeconcorde says:

    31 Mar31 March 09:32

    I agree, especially as I got caught out by a category change last year. In October I flew from Jersey to a UK location in a green category. The day before I returned to Jersey the location changed to amber and I had unexpected six days of self-isolation. Yes, longer than 5 days because you have to wait for the day 5 test result to come back negative before self-isolation can end. The Jersey government has stated from 26th April 2021 they will revise the categories on a weekly basis.

  • Alex Sm says:

    2 Apr2 April 10:49

    What about Jersey’s ‘sister’ island, Guernsey? They are selling flights (Aurigny) very aggressively and I have a holiday (re)booked because last summer it was just impossible to get there from mainland England, flights were cancelled, while the hotel said: “We can’t refund you because we are up and running”. So I had to rebook for Aug 2021. Such a paradox…

• Dwb1873 says:

  31 Mar31 March 06:20

  After the shambles the Jersey Gov made of this over the Winter and the fact they are barely out of restrictions as it is, after months of them, I imagine the residents are thrilled to bits to know once again the Jersey government is potentially throwing them under a bus for a few tourist pounds

  • planeconcorde says:

    31 Mar31 March 07:55

    The on island restrictions are currently far lower than England. For weeks have been able to go to non-essential shops, a restaurant inside, get a hair cut etc. More recently inside gyms have reopened. From Friday it will be possible to get a drink in a pub without a meal.
    Not everybody travelling is a tourist to the island. Jersey residents also want to travel to the UK to visit friends and family. The rules from 26th April start to make that a practical possibility again.

    • Anna says:

      31 Mar31 March 08:00

      But not if you live in a poorer area, which is where infection rates are higher. Just saying …

      • planeconcorde says:

        31 Mar31 March 09:29

        Anna: Sorry I don’t understand your comment. Jersey hasn’t broken down their own COVID infection figures by areas. Their statistics are for the whole island.

        • Rob says:

          31 Mar31 March 09:30

          She meant poorer area in the UK, which is likely to have a higher infection rate. Not that you’re likely to be rushing to pay Jersey hotel prices, or indeed current flight prices, if you do live in one.

    • Dwb1873 says:

      31 Mar31 March 15:41

      I live in Guernsey and I believe – as residents – we’ve had a much nicer time of it. Local businesses boomed over the summer. It’s not all a bed of roses but we seem to have had better ‘day to day’ outcomes. The Jersey government will, and does, claim otherwise of course.

      I have work colleagues in Jersey and they are spitting feathers at this travel move after months of restrictions face masks, case numbers, the extra deaths etc.

      As always opinions will be split, but I know which island’s approach I prefer. Yes we just had a second lockdown for 8 weeks, but we also had absolute normality – except for travel – from June to January and are back there again now.

      • Alex Sm says:

        2 Apr2 April 10:51

        Apart from the fact that people from mainland England couldn’t get to Guernsey last summer as flights were cancelled…

  • Elizabeth says:

    31 Mar31 March 08:20

    Absolutely agree. We are only just getting back to some form of normality and the last thing we need are the incomers who caused virtually all of our problems last year. Most of Jersey’s Covid cases were the result of “incoming travel” Most tourists do not spend as highly as we residents do when we are actually able to move freely in the island.
    Stay local and support your own local businesses, we on Jersey will support ours.

    • Elizabeth says:

      31 Mar31 March 08:22

      I was replying to Dwb 1873

      • Nick says:

        31 Mar31 March 08:30

        If Jersey didn’t want people entering, they could leave the whole of the UK at Red level. It’s not fair to castigate people who are doing what your government allows them to.

        • Elizabeth says:

          31 Mar31 March 08:57

          Sadly the members of The States aren’t the brightest people Jersey has to offer and there is a suspicion amongst Jersey residents that there are vested interests at play.
          They did throw Jersey residents “under the bus” with their open border policy last summer which came home to roost to over 1000 cases per 100,000 at the height.

    • Rob says:

      31 Mar31 March 09:20

      Our are all shut 🙂

    • Ian says:

      1 Apr1 April 20:53

      How very parochial! The virus originated in China, so every other country on Earth with cases has them because of “incomers”. How do you know the first case on Jersey didn’t originate from a Jersey resident returning to the island from somewhere else?

      • Alex Sm says:

        2 Apr2 April 10:56

        The worst consequence of this pandemic is not the toll on our health, not the economic damage, but the fact people became very nationalist and xenophobic in general… which is very sad

• Lee says:

  31 Mar31 March 06:35

  However everywhere is currently Red and will not be lowered until 26th April.

  You will not know until then as to which zone you are in, making it impossible to stay from that date – unless you get a same day flight which is unlikely.

• mr_jetlag says:

  31 Mar31 March 06:35

  What a needlessly complicated and pointless system.

• Ads says:

  31 Mar31 March 07:04

  What about when flying back from Jersey to the UK? Will you need to have a PCR test in Jersey and present the certificate on the return?

  • planeconcorde says:

    31 Mar31 March 07:39

    No. Jersey is part of the common travel area so a test before travel to England is not required. Don’t need to complete the UK arrival form either.

• pauldb says:

  31 Mar31 March 07:05

  “Stay local” rules have not been lifted. It would be more accurate to say stay local has just replaced stay at home: or specifically the advice is now “minimise travel” until May 17th.

  Of course that clashes with domestic self catering accommodation being open, and you aren’t going to be fined or sent home, but “you are free to travel”
  isn’t quite right either.

  • Alan says:

    31 Mar31 March 07:12

    Indeed, plus the rules are different in each part of the UK too.

  • Anna says:

    31 Mar31 March 08:02

    There never was a “stay local” rule, it was just advice. The English government was always free to amend this, as was the case in other UK nations.

    • Elizabeth says:

      31 Mar31 March 08:29

      I too, think “stay local” was a rule. If the sizeable minority in the UK who broke the rules during lockdown had in fact obeyed them, then perhaps many lives could have been saved. These covidiots have, by their selfishness, prolonged this pandemic.

      • Charlieface says:

        1 Apr1 April 19:35

        Very much doubt “staying local” was at all relevant. Most infection was passed on indoors by people in close contact over considerable lengths of time. A climb up a mountain in the Lakes is going to do anything

    • Chris Heyes says:

      31 Mar31 March 11:31

      Anna Stay local to me could be interpreted by “me” to mean local to “England”
      unless someone makes a law defining “Local” it could be even Europe is local to me (just playing as usual lol)

  • Spongthrush says:

    31 Mar31 March 08:02

    I’m pretty sure that ‘stay local’ was once in the rules but looking at gov.uk for England, there is absolutely no mention of this. Yes, ‘minimise travel’ but you can travel anywhere in the Common Travel Area subject to the rules at destination.

    • Chris says:

      31 Mar31 March 08:53

      “Stay local” was never in law or official guidance. A few politicians have used the phrase, but, until we fully become an authoritarian police state, just because a Government minister states something doesn’t mean it is law, or guidance, or we have to take any notice whatsoever. That the media and public keep on recycling this garbage, which has no basis in fact or truth, is a reflection of how far we have collapsed as a society during the past 12 months.

      • Elizabeth says:

        31 Mar31 March 08:58

        What tosh!

        • Chris says:

          31 Mar31 March 09:04

          Elizabeth, find the reference in law and/or the official guidance. If you can’t, then I will be expecting an apology.

        • pauldb says:

          31 Mar31 March 09:33

          Chris, the “tosh” is that the media have apparently been peddling nonsense (examples please). And your sad/ironic suggestion that somehow our society would be better if the government had to legislate everything, instead of being able to use advice as a tool and rely on personal/social responsibility.

        • Chris says:

          31 Mar31 March 09:52

          Paul, I’ll be reasonable and assume you didn’t properly read what I had written. I did not write or “suggest” society would be better if the Government had to legislate for everything. That you cannot accurately represent an opponent’s very brief comment is, I suspect, a reflection of why you haven’t noticed the media “peddling nonsense” as you call it. I have given one example, but there are plenty of others related to the media’s inability to correctly differentiate between law and guidance.

        • pauldb says:

          31 Mar31 March 10:02

          OK, I’ll restate. I think it’s a positive sign of our society that the government can use advice rather than legislation. And ministers and media have not misrepresented this – could you actually demonstrate where they have? So neither of these demonstrate collapse of our society: quite the opposite.

        • Tiff says:

          31 Mar31 March 10:28

          It happens all the time. Jeremy Vine said that visiting a second home in England is currently illegal – this is wrong. It is currently legal. The Telegraph had a piece yesterday saying it’s illegal to visit Devon – it’s not. The relevant question is whether you are part of an illegal gathering or not. Following the guidance is the right thing to do, but it’s not the law and not enforceable by police. The thing that we definitely don’t need is police enforcing laws that don’t exist.

        • Jamie says:

          31 Mar31 March 10:53

          Lol, Chris, you’re expecting an apology?! I think you’ve stumbled into the wrong playground, please head back to junior school with your shrill and grossly exaggerated claims.

        • pauldb says:

          31 Mar31 March 11:15

          Tiff, I don’t disagree with the second half of your comment. But I can’t see your Telegraph reference. Here’s their reporting today, which shows they certainly don’t “keep on recycling this nonsense”:

          “Similarly the Government has dropped its “stay local” messaging, meaning households are no longer explicitly told to remain in their geographical area.
          Instead there is new guidance that encourages people to “minimise” travel – reflecting the fact that the Government does not want people continually moving across the country.
          However there is now nothing to stop someone driving a few hundred miles, seeing a family member outside, and then driving back that same day, providing they do not stay the night.”

        • Tiff says:

          31 Mar31 March 11:37

          This is what the Telegraph published yesterday, with no mention that it is legally nonsense:

          Sally Everton, director of Visit Devon, called on the public to visit the county when it is “safe and legal” to do so, while encouraging locals to report out-of-towners to the police.

          “Coming up on the A30 [on Monday] all I saw was cars with surfboards on the roof,” she said. “Either they’re going to get their surfboards waxed or serviced, or they’re looking for some waves. I’m quite disappointed because people will flout the law.

          “What we need is an enforcement notice from the Government to say that while people can move around, they should stay local and to still minimise travel.

          “If you know there’s somebody in their second home or there’s an Airbnb that has been occupied, we’d encourage them to report it to the police.”

        • Chris says:

          31 Mar31 March 11:37

          Jamie, as others are also asserting, “stay local” being in the official guidance and/or law is a fiction. It would be very easy to prove me wrong if it were in the guidance and/or law, but, since it is not, you and other can’t – so you/they resort to misrepresentation and mudslinging.

        • pauldb says:

          31 Mar31 March 12:43

          No one has argued Stay Local was ever law, but it was offical guidance. Now Minimise Travel is official guidance. Are you really disputing that?

        • Tiff says:

          31 Mar31 March 13:10

          ‘“Stay local” rules have not been lifted’ (pauldb)
          ‘I too, think “stay local” was a rule.’ (Elizabeth)
          “Stay local” was never law or guidance in England. It was in Wales. Perhaps pauldb and Elizabeth are in Wales.
          There is guidance about overnight stays and people should follow the guidance, but don’t mistake it for law, or a “rule”.

        • pauldb says:

          31 Mar31 March 13:34

          You might equate the use of the word Rule with Law, but I wasn’t. Have a read of the Highway Code preample if you are confused: the “rules” include legal requirements and advice, the latter denoted by SHOULD.

        • _nate says:

          1 Apr1 April 08:03

          The current government would love it if their word was law. We are not quite at that stage yet. When you accuse someone of talking nonsense, you should supply proof to the contrary. The ‘stay local’ thing had no official meaning.

        • pauldb says:

          1 Apr1 April 22:58

          If the current government wanted “stay local” to be law, they’d have put in the the Statutory Instrument, which became law by 484 votes to 76 and would certainly have passed with such an amendment. So the idea they want to enforce “stay local” but cannot is clearly, I’m afraid, more nonsense.

      • Brian says:

        31 Mar31 March 09:15

        +1 Chris

      • Tiff says:

        31 Mar31 March 09:19

        “Stay local” was law and guidance in Wales. But never in England.

        • Chris says:

          31 Mar31 March 14:15

          Don’t swear at people is guidance (moral) and not law either. But you’re an idiot if you use the status of legislation to defend yourself against such an accusation.

          Have we lost so much moral compass (or become so self-entitled) that every single thing we can and can’t do must be enshrined in legislation?

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