An island head teacher has launched a petition calling for Covid-19 testing at the island’s borders.

Annette Baker, who is retiring as head of Ramsey Grammar School in December, says on-arrival testing the Sea Terminal and Ronaldsway would allow loved-ones to visit and students to come home.

Her change.org petition has been signed by more than 100 people.

Mrs Baker said with an estimated 750-1,000 students due to come home at Christmas, this could lead to a second wave of the virus here unless we invest in testing at the borders.

Mrs Baker (pictured right) said: ’What is the island going to do? We can’t sit in a bubble and cut ourselves off.

’Of course our students need to come home. But is it realistic to expect them all to have abided by the rules?

’We need to have enhanced testing at the borders, with quarantine, like other island nations, to mitigate against this risk.’

Mrs Baker, who is secondary school representative with the NAHT teaching union, said that if students were allowed home, close relatives should similarly be allowed to visit from the UK.

She pointed out the Channel Islands have more flexible border arrangements.

Jersey offers swab tests on arrival and an on-arrival Covid testing facility has been created at Guernsey airport ready for the island to move to the next stage of its lockdown exit.

testing

The government here has consistently ruled out bringing in testing on arrival.

It says such testing cannot reliably rule out infection.

This is because someone can be infected but not ’shedding virus’ which could mean a test may not return a positive result.

But Mrs Baker believes it’s all down to cost and on-arrival testing, hand in hand with quarantine, would provide another line in the island’s Covid defences.

And she said: ’I fear for physical and mental health, recruitment and retention of teachers, the TT and the tourist sector among others if they don’t start to proactively plan for this virus to be with us for a long time.

’They can’t keep us in this bubble for much longer. Other island nations are proactively managing the risks, we are relying mainly on the Irish Sea.’

l You can find her petition at http://chng.it/yVfWxCZP