The Isle of Man Government would be ’criminally negligent’ if it failed to act to prevent the Indian variant of coronavirus from reaching our shores, a new resident has warned.

Tess Finch-Lees, a freelance journalist who has recently moved her family to the island, claims the exit strategy appears to be driven by dates not data.

Ms Finch-Lees said: ’It does not appear to be underpinned by public health measures that are fit for purpose given the threat posed by the India variant.

’There appears to be no appetite or intention to act now, despite the data making clear the risk to the Manx population once seeded within the community. Monitoring, it seems, relates to once the variants are already here.’

She wrote to Chief Minister Howard Quayle and Public Health director Dr Henrietta Ewart, outlining her concerns, and has subsequently written to them again highlighting the Public Health England (PHE) data. She’s awaiting a response.

Ms Finch-Lees said: ’The chief minister’s letter to me acknowledges the increased risk of reducing isolation to 48 hours but does not propose to alter it.

’The Isle of Man has moved to a "living with the virus" strategy, despite the fact that countries that have adopted this strategy have suffered the highest losses in terms of lives and livelihood.’

She points out that PHE analysis indicates both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are less effective against the India variant compared to the Kent variant, after one dose.

On May 31, ahead of a two-week pause in the roll-out of vaccinations, 28,402 people had received both doses.

There are reports of widespread outbreaks in eight regions of the UK. Germany has banned all but essential travel from the UK.

Ms Finch-Lees said: ’The Chief Minister’s letter to me justified the decision not to pause border opening despite the threat posed by importing the virus on the grounds that the island has effectively had over 14 months of restricted movement between it and the UK, where there are many social and economic ties that have been stretched to the limit.

’The absence of scientific underpinning in both Dr Ewart and the Chief Minister’s responses to my questions indicates they are either not fully appreciating the gravity and urgency of the threat, or being in denial of the threat.’

And she believes Isle of Man residents would echo her views.

She said: ’My guess is that the Manx public would rather wait a couple more months until the entire population has been fully vaccinated rather than risk sabotaging the vaccine roll out by opening up too soon and allowing the importation of a variant which will inevitably target our unvaccinated children, potentially mutating en-route and risking yet more vaccine escape.

’’The Isle of Man government still has the opportunity or duty to prevent this dangerous variant from getting onto the island. Failure to act on the UK government’s scientific data now would be reckless and, some would argue, criminally negligent.’