The Isle of Man has the highest Covid-19 rate on the planet, according to the World Health Organisation - but the Manx Health Minister says we should not take the figures on face value.

Its latest data says that the island has 2,018 per 100,000 population.

Second on the table is Jersey with 1,658.

In comparison, the UK had 366 and Guernsey 60.5.

It’s a far cry from the situation earlier in the year when the Isle of Man was lauded as the safest place in Europe as we came out of lockdown.

The government’s policy since then has moved from elimination to mitigation and the borders have been largely opened to allow more people in.

The change came after most elderly and vulnerable people were vaccinated against the virus, meaning that, while infection rates grew, the effects of people being infected was reduced.

Health Minister David Ashford told the Manx Independent: ’Tables per 100,000 are not much use in small populations, a bit like the R rate.

’As daily case numbers changing by even a small amount each day can cause wide jumps in the data.

’For instance 10 days ago there were 306 cases identified that are due to come off the figures compared to the 89 cases so far identified today to go on so the data will radically jump around as any jump in daily cases in small populations (or decline for that matter) changes the figures radically day by day.’

The number of active cases in the Isle of Man was 2,042 as we went to press. Eight were in hospital, with one intensive care.