The Manx government will later this week publish its planned next steps in dealing with the Covid pandemic.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle said it would be ’our best guess as to what the journey ahead might look like’ but that it would be irresponsible to put dates into the plan.

He told a press briefing yesterday (Monday) that ’we now had an opportunity to think about the future’ and decisions taken will be based on the data gathered at each stage.

’If the data and clinical advice we receive allows us to do more, then we might do more. But if that advice tells us we are seeing a resurgence in the spread of the virus then we will not take any further measures that might worsen it,’ he said.

He added the approach had to be ’incremental small steps, gradual, managed and clinically led’.

The island would have to learn to live with the ’new normal’ and social distancing would remain important for a long time to come, he said.

Mr Quayle said while the situation at Abbotswood was a ’heartbreaking tragedy’, he was pleased that the wider figures remain low with only one new case in six days. He said there was ’cause for cautious optimism’.

He said updated government advice was that masks would remain a matter for personal choice. Government will make masks available to its staff that are unable to maintain social distancing.

There was insufficient scientific evidence that wearing masks protects the wearer but there is some limited evidence that if they are worn by someone with slight or no symptoms, they may protect others.

Isle of Man Prison is now in lockdown, governor Bob McColm revealed. He said the jail had been reconfigured to have an isolation wing for inmates who have tested positive or who are showing symptoms.