Backbench MHKs accused the government of reacting too slowly to the Covid-19 cases that led to the latest lockdown.

Many vented their anger at the decision-making process that saw the Council of Ministers call on people to cancel public gatherings and household mixing on Saturday, February 27, due to two unexplained cases, and then put out a business as usual message, while calling for vigilance, the following day.

Schools opened as normal on March 1 but the discovery of a positive case in a pupil at Bemahague led to a late night announcement to the school’s year eight children and their families to isolate.

Ministers then decided to go into lockdown from just after midnight Wednesday, but the decision was not announced until all other schools had opened as normal on Tuesday.

Daphne Caine (Garff) accused Mr Quayle of ’rewriting history’ with his claim that the Council of Ministers had acted decisively.

’The flip-flopping of the Council of Ministers not reading the signs that others did on the Sunday and the Monday has led to this enormous increase from a handful of cases, four I think it was, to 400 now,’ Mrs Caine said.

Mr Quayle accused Mrs Caine of ’selective memory’.

’We have explained on numerous occasions to members what happened,’ he said.

’On Saturday the 27th we had a situation where we had two high-risk cases and we were doing track and trace on those high-risk contacts to see if the spread from those two cases had got into the community.

’On Sunday we had results that every high-risk case had been swabbed and had come back as negative and therefore the evidence showed at the time that there had been no transmission from those two cases.

’Therefore based on the evidence in front of us, sadly, it led us to believe it was safe to open up on Sunday. That was not some sort of bad decision from the Council of Ministers, the evidence clearly showed that the high-risk contacts were negative and therefore there was not an issue.’

He added: ’However the minute on Monday evening that we found out that we had a child with Covid in the community we instantly called for a lockdown of the island, which was implemented at one minute past midnight on the Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning.

’I think that is pretty quick turnaround. Had we had one positive in among those high-risk cases then of course we would have taken a totally different action at the time.’

Bill Shimmins (Middle) accused Mr Quayle of ’spin and bluster’ and demanded an ’honest’ appraisal of when the current lockdown would end.

Mr Quayle said: ’We went into a three-week lockdown hoping that we could come out after three weeks.

’The data at this moment in time looks that it probably will not happen in three weeks. We still do not know and cannot give an exact date.

’Once we start to see cases falling and we get more data then we will be able to advise people as soon as possible.

’I do not think we will come out of it in three weeks.

’I regret that we are in this position but to say we were at fault and it is our fault, I think people are being unreasonable in trying to apportion blame when we have a good team working here.

’We get good advice that has worked well for the island for the last 12 months. Sadly, it has not worked this time but the evidence did not point to the need to shut down any earlier.’

Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) argued it would have been better to advise people to stay safe while awaiting further evidence from the cases identified on February 27. Mr Quayle said that was what happened over that weekend.

Education, page 6.