Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly has thanked the Manx public for their ’understanding’ during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Skelly was speaking at Sunday’s daily press briefing where it was confirmed a further one person has tested positive for the coronavirus strain.

The Minister said that since the pandemic began, government has had to make some ’very difficult decisions’.

He said: ’You have been cooperative, you have stayed at home, you’ve exercised social distancing when you go out and you’ve been patient while we live in this restricted period.

’We have seen behavioural change and I find it quite ironic really because on the Isle of Man we are often criticised for not accepting change.

’You, the Manx public, have shown you can bust that myth.’

Mr Skelly also praised the island’s businesses for their patience and adaptability during the pandemic which has seen factories change their output and restaurants become take aways, sometimes in a matter of days.

He added that when he looked back to the start of the Howard Quayle administration, he looked to the Programme for Government which he called the ’manifesto’ for what it wanted to achieve.

The header for that programme was ’Our island, a special place to live and work’. Mr Skelly said that as the world has been ’turned upside down’, ’we have focused on that word, live’.

The Minister added that the ’entire force of government’ was behind the preservation of life.