People arriving in the island will not be tested for Covid-19, the Chief Minister has confirmed.

Howard Quayle was asked in Tynwald by Middle MHK Bill Shimmins (pictured) to outline when arrivals would be screened for the virus.

Mr Quayle said that the clinicians, who are leading the government’s policy making, have said that ’testing cannot reliably rule out infection in people as part of border controls’.

This is because while someone may be infected, they are not ’shedding virus’ and therefore their test may not return a positive result.

He added: ’Jersey are currently trialling a system where arrivals will be offered the choice between self-isolating for 14 days or taking a PCR test on arrival.

’If they take the test, they must self-isolate until the test result comes back.

’There are follow up tests, including an antibody test, which may then enable the person to exit the programme earlier than 14 days, according to their results.’

Those arriving in Jersey are also subject to enforcement controls during this period. Mr Quayle said that the government was ’monitoring’ the Jersey trial.

The Chief Minister said that there has been a roll-out of testing to utilise the spare capacity at Noble’s Hospital. The island has capability to test 200 people a day, but has rarely, if ever, used this full capability since it was installed and made operational.

Weekly tests have been made available to the emergency services, health workers and teachers.

But Mr Quayle said the take up on the offer of these tests has been ’disappointing’.

He added: ’We had to keep a number of our testing capacity free because we have made that offer to a number of thousand of people.

’We’ve only had a small uptake, but we have to keep the capacity for some of that testing for these people.’

Alongside the offer of weekly tests to these workers, the government is still testing everyone admitted to Noble’s Hospital and is planning the roll out antibody tests.