Letters were sent to vulnerable people during the pandemic at an ’appropriate time’, the Health Minister has insisted.

More than 13,000 letters giving advice on Covid-19 precautions were sent out in April to those categorised as vulnerable or extremely vulnerable to the virus.

A total of 6,662 letters were later sent in June with updated and revised guidance.

’We got them out as soon as we could,’ Health Minister David Ashford told the House of Keys this week.

He was speaking in response to a question tabled by Douglas Central MHK Chris Thomas.

’We had to identify those people first of all, because there wasn’t some centrally held list ready for this of who fell into which category. We had to compile the information and get the letters out,’ Mr Ashford said.

He added that people who knew they were in those categories took a ’very sensible approach’ by isolating themselves.

This, he said, was one of the factors that helped the island become Covid-19 free.

’I would like to put on record my thanks to all of the Manx public for the way that they reacted,’ he said.

’We asked them to pause their lives and that’s no easy task and people responded exceptionally well. It’s due to that that we are in the situation we’re in today.’

Individual letters were sent to patients who were ’clinically vulnerable’ - including those over the age of 70, with chronic health conditions, taking low dose steroids, the very obese and pregnant women - telling them to stay at home as much as possible.

Vulnerable

The other group to receive letters were those who were ’clinically extremely vulnerable’ - including people receiving radiotherapy or chemotherapy, have had an organ, bone marrow stem cell transplant, have severe respiratory disease or are severely immunosuppressed. They were advised to self-isolate at home, only to leave for exercise once a day, have food and medical supplies delivered to them and enhance their home hygiene.

Onchan MHK Julie Edge said that some residents in the extremely vulnerable category received a letter from the UK before getting a Manx version.

She asked about letter provision in the event of another outbreak.

Mr Ashford said: ’What takes priority is the Manx letter version because at the end of the day we’re doing what’s right for the people of the island. The advice we put out to my understanding was firmer than that that went out to the UK.

’The UK letters did come out first, but the UK had their outbreak first.

’The risk for shielding is that if we’d mirrored the UK and put the letters out, which would have in that case been before we had even had an identified case in the island, we would’ve been asking people to shelter for potentially up to 15-20 weeks.

’There are other things that go with that in terms of psychological impact, health and wellbeing, mental health... we did things at the appropriate time.’

He added that having experienced the Covid-19 pandemic, the DHSC is in a ’much better position’ to get its advice out much earlier as it can rely on a compiled list of names.