New Covid cases ‘could mean community spread’ on Isle of Man
People have been urged to stay at home, avoid mixing with other households and postpone events
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Your support makes all the difference.Coronavirus may be spreading through community transmission on the Isle of Man again, after its government announced nine new cases had been detected.
Two of those cases cannot be linked to a known chain of transmission and chief minister Howard Quayle said it was now "possible that the virus is circulating in the community" again.
The island lifted all Covid restrictions at the start of February for the second time, following a three-week circuit break.
While its borders remain closed to almost all non-residents, people have been urged to stay at home, avoid mixing with other households and postpone events as a precaution.
Mr Quayle said: “As we are unable at this stage to link either of these cases to a known transmission chain - or to each other - we must conclude that it is possible that the virus is circulating in the community.”
He added that the government had "stopped short" of making the measures a legal requirement.
The situation would become clearer as the contact tracing process progressed throughout the weekend, he said.
"We will continue to review the situation as more information develops", he added.
Following today’s announcement of two currently unexplained cases of #COVID19, a number of locations have identified through contact tracing that could pose low risk of COVID-19. #IsleofMan #IOM #Manx pic.twitter.com/7vdgVedTwD
— Isle of Man Government (@IOMGovernment) February 27, 2021
There are currently 49 active cases on the island, with 44 linked to a recent cluster. They are all are in isolation.
Six of the latest cases are linked to the same cluster, which originated from a member of a ferry crew.
The other case was picked up in a person coming to island through its strict isolation and testing regime.
Some 484 people have tested positive for Covid since the pandemic began, with 25 deaths.
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