The lives of others depend on you.

That was the message from Dr Rosalind Ranson, the island’s chief medical director, who spoke at a press briefing this lunchtime.

Dr Ranson warned that without isolation, the spread of coronavirus infection will become exponential and it will 'overwhelm our health and social care system.’She said:'The lives of others depend on you. There is only so much that medicine can do.'Dr Ranson said she could not emphasise too much the importance of the message of self-isolation, social distancing and washing your hands.Health Minister David Ashford told the briefing there are no other cases of Covid-19 other than the two that had been identified.

He said the second case was an island resident who had returned here after visiting the UK. Mr Ashford said the individual has self-isolated as soon as they had symptoms and their family had no symptoms. Just like the first case, they had mild symptoms and had not required hospital admission.The Minister said anyone who had been in contact with them was in the process of being traced, and the team at public health were going through the flight data.

This process had been completed in relation to the first coronavirus victim, he said.Mr Ashford pointed out that the evidence from around the world is that 94% of cases are mild.Chief Minister Howard Quayle told the press briefing that the decision not to close schools will be reviewed on a daily basis.

He was asked about the UK’s decision to defer VAT payments by companies until the end of June. Mr Quayle pointed out we have a reciprocal agreement with the UK and the Treasury Minister will be making an announcement on Monday.The Chief Minister said 76 tests were carried out at the mobile unit on its first day yesterday (Friday).He said 29 of these were sent off to the UK for analysis before the 2pm daily cut-off for samples, and the rest would be sent today. The turn-around time for results to come back was 72 hours.The Chief Minister said he had visited the mobile testing unit and had been 'humbled' by the positivity of the hard-working staff there. He said he wanted to 'praise them to the hilt'.Dr Ranson said wards one and two had been designated as Covid-positive wards.