Jersey press conference with Dr Ivan Muscat, Medical Officer of Health, underway. Highlights...

•Cases so far mirroring expected rate of rise
•Currently expecting case numbers to double every 3 to 5 days “at moment”
•Some charts (finally) to be published weekly on website

•5,000 ‘do you have it’ test kits due ‘mid April’
•50,000 antibody ‘have you had it’ tests due mid-April, 100,000 to follow
•Islandwide testing programme to begin with frontline workers

•Plan is to use that ‘have you had it’ test to help inform when lockdown can be lifted
•Chief Minister previously said 5,000 test kits were due this week, Dr Muscat says that date has been put back two weeks - didn’t say why when asked
•On-island tests will only take an hour

•Islandwide testing plan not yet designed so doesn’t know how it will work
•Aim is to have mobile testing units go to different parts of island
•Says will know if lockdown measures have worked in around two weeks from now

•Explains ‘end game’ of crisis will be signalled by drop in number of new cases
•Requires a level of immunity in population as a whole (ie. majority of people have had it)
•Can’t wait for vaccine as that could be a year away

•No current plan to share any testing facility with Guernsey
•No cluster of cases in care homes so far, but perfectly possible
•A number of frontline health workers have tested positive, but can’t say how many

Ends