The Manx Labour Party has criticised the government over its handling of the coronavirus situation.

A statement from the party comes as the Chief Minister is preparing to make an announcement about government policies.

’Our political representatives have to make some stark decisions today as how to defend our isle,’ the Labour party says.

’The lack of communication and action recently and over the weekend has been a sign of weakness. Up to this point, this indecisiveness is understandable as we are in an unprecedented situation. But from this point on, leadership needs to be strong and decisive.’

The party describes the situation as bewildering and says there is a lot of conjecture about how serious this illness is.

’We could try to guess the outcome of the "herd immunity" strategy but that is way too risky for the Isle of Man,’ the party says.

’The UK’s response flouts the global scientific recommendations as well as other countries’ experiences on this and should be rejected for these reasons.

’News from Italy is a concern and their troubles have to some extent been down to close-knit communities that are weighted with elderly folk, who experience this disease more severely. Although not entirely the same, we share elements of their demography.’

The party suggests that the Isle of MAn could just ’take a breather’ or ’put the brakes’ on for four weeks by going into a kind of ’hibernation mode’.

It advises that the island puts into place all necessary restrictions that are being employed by other jurisdictions.

’We could have time to rationalise what is actually going on,’ the party says. ’In that period, create a combined community and medical framework to deal with all matters we are steadily becoming familiar with.

’Just having time to observe how this pandemic manoeuvres around the UK and Europe will be of much value assuming the virus isn’t moving through our people already.

’As with other scenarios, we need to be led by the best science on this.’

The Manx Labour party no longer has any representatives in Tynwald after David Cretney retired from politics earlier this month.