A three-week circuit breaker lockdown including school closures will come into force in the next 24 hours following a surge in Covid cases.The move was announced by Chief Minister Howard Quayle at a press briefing this evening.

It follows the deteriorating situation in the UK and six positive test results that emerged in the island late yesterday and overnight and a new positive result this afternoon, taking the island's total number of cases to 12. Eleven of these are self-isolating at home and one is in hospital.Mr Quayle said the situation was evolving quickly and there was a 'significant risk’ of ‘reseeding widespread community transmission' and a ‘credible risk’ of the virus spreading widely into the community in the coming days.This resulted from the further spread of infection beyond the household of an index case - an individual who had travelled here - to a number of different locations and involving potential contact with a large number of people.Mr Quayle said there was a mixture of circumstances but at the moment there was no indication of any link with the two cases announced on New Year's Eve.He said he didn't know at this stage whether the cases involved the new highly-transmissible variant of the virus but it was possible.'We have had to be bold in our actions,' he said. 'We have to go in hard and fast.'Everyone will be asked to stay at home as much as they can and to work from home wherever possible and 2m social distancing will be reintroduced.The measures will come into force no later than just after midnight Wednesday/Thursday.This includes the orderly closure of schools with a move to hub provision for the children of key workers and remote learning for others.Everyone who can work from home will be asked to do so by Thursday and if possible before. Employers are required to take this obligation seriously and do everything they can to facilitate it, said Mr Quayle. Where a skeleton team is needed in the office to ensure core services this must be kept to an ‘absolute minimum’.Non-essential retail will close. For most this will mean from closing time tomorrow. Only food shops and pharmacies are considered essential.All hospitality venues with the exception of takeaways will have to close as soon as possible but no later than midnight Wednesday/Thursday.The construction sector will also shut down other than for critical or emergency work.Lifestyle businesses including indoor leisure facilities such as gyms and pools will also have to close for the 21 days.Wearing of face masks in public will be strongly advised, and will be compulsory on public transport.

The island will also move to level 5 of the borders framework, ie border closure, with travel for any reason strongly discouraged.If people do decide to travel across the government could not guarantee when they could return. They will have to have three tests on return - on day one, then six or seven and day 13 at a cost of £50 each time - before they can come out of self-isolation. If they don’t want to pay for the tests they must stay in quarantine for 21 days. Patient transfers are exempt from this.Mr Quayle said the salary support scheme and MERA will be reopened for the period of the lockdown.An all-island speed limit won't be introduced at this stage.Care homes will stop visits with immediate effect.You cannot gather with anyone outside your own household and you will only be allowed to exercise once a day, without a time limit, but only with members of your household.Wedding and collective worship cannot take place.Hardware and garden centres can remain open for the time being.