Option of day seven testing for returning residents is to be withdrawn as the coronavirus situation in the UK deteriorates.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle said Ministers had discussed the worsening picture across and decided stricter measures were required to reduce the risk of the virus returning.

The option to have test after day seven will be withdrawn for anyone arriving after the last flight and ferry on Sunday.

From Monday, returning residents will be required to self-isolate for the full 14 days.

Those who have already had the seven-day test and are in now in their modified period of self-isolation will not be affected.

Mr Quayle told the weekly press briefing yesterday: ’I know this change will disappoint and frustrate some people.

He said the situation in the UK is ’serious and deteriorating’.

Our border controls will remain at level 4 of border framework.

’Now is clearly not the time to loosen restrictions,’ the Chief Minister said.

Mr Quayle said the Council of Ministers has announced it will review the measures, processes and procedures for key worker exemptions.

This follows revelations that one of five visiting welders jailed for breaching Covid-19 rules had tested positive for the virus.

Mr Quayle said a small number of visiting key workers had ’wilfully’ broken the rules. He said anyone - returning residents or visiting key workers - travelling from the UK must go directly from the airport or Sea Terminal to their place of self-isolation.

’No stopping for petrol, sausage rolls or alcohol,’ said the Chief Minister.

He said entry certificates for key workers are clear.

New lanes have been introduced at the airport and Sea Terminal this week for arriving key worker so they can be advised of the rules and the consequences for not following them.

Asked if works on the MER were really critical, Mr Quayle said: ’We are reviewing this. If there are ways of improving the rules and regulations to narrow down the number we will of course do this.’

Some 1,229 key workers have visited the island since March, half of whom are medical workers.

Health Minister David Ashford told the press conference that surgical theatres at Noble’s were now back to normal and fully operational.

As a result elective surgery is now back up to pre-Covid levels, as is endoscopy.

Winter planning has been completed to ensure levels of elective surgery can be maintained alongside a Covid response and dealing with the usual winter pressures.