Another Covid-19 related death was confirmed in the island this week.

It was made public in the government’s weekly surveillance report released on Thursday.

It takes the total since the start of the pandemic to 80.

The current seven-day average for reported positive results is around 40, which indicated a slight increase in the rate of transmission on the island.

The effective reproduction number (Rt) was 1.00, up from 0.50 last week.

On Thursday (February 24) there were 345 active cases of coronavirus in the island - up from 232 at the same time last week.

But the weekly report stated that: ’Our data over the past month indicates that we are still in a period when we will see case numbers remaining at a plateau for a time with small fluctuations week on week.

’How long this persists will depend on levels of immunity, patterns of mixing in our communities and travel, all of which have an impact on transmission.’

At the end of next month, the island will drop the majority of its remaining coronavirus restrictions, much like the rest of the states in the Common Travel Area (CTA).

The CTA consists of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

In England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the country is following the island’s lead by scrapping the requirement for people who catch Covid to isolate.

Boris Johnson addressed the House of Commons on Monday, and laid out plans for ’living with Covid’.

The requirement to isolate was subsequently dropped there on Thursday.

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Starting from April 1, anyone in England who wants to test to see if they have Covid will have to pay between £2 and £5 for an individual LFT.

The Courier asked the Isle of Man government if the island would follow suit, and was told: ’Self-testing remains free of charge as set out in the Endemic Approach document, with the situation being kept under review.’

Guernsey dropped legally mandated self-isolation for cases and the removed all border restrictions on February 17.

The government there decided that it was ’no longer proportionate or necessary to continue utilising emergency regulations to manage the implications of Covid-19, largely because of the high vaccine uptake amongst the community resulting in very few hospitalisations due to the virus’.

As of Wednesday, there were 1,034 active cases in Guernsey - significantly higher than the levels here in the Isle of Man, which perhaps highlights their commitment to redefine the pandemic as an endemic we must now live with.

In Jersey, the government yesterday published a strategy outlining the island’s own de-escalation and recovery plans.

Their strategy states that the government there will continue to ’provide free PCR testing to all symptomatic islanders and those with a positive lateral flow test (LFT) result until at least June’.

Additionally, ’free LFTs through the home testing programme will be available until at least June’.

All signs appear to point to a shift regarding universal free Covid testing by this summer.