Jersey to launch ‘hospitality circuit breaker’ with businesses to shut until January

Jersey has announced a ‘hospitality circuit breaker’ with businesses to close from Friday until the New Year.

All licensed premises will have to close from one minute past midnight this Friday (4 December). Hotels will also be closed except for those hosting people who are isolating and essential workers. Takeaways and delivery services will be able to continue.

Increased financial support will also be available to support those affected.

The measures will be regularly reviewed, however it is anticipated they will remain in place until 4 January 2021.

The two-metre distancing law is also to be brought back into force, including for retail.

Chief minister, senator John Le Fondré, said: “We are seeing more cases in hospital and a continuing growth in the number of positive cases in the community. We have been briefed on the current R-rate, which is between 1.6 and 2.0. This means each case is, on average, passing the infection onto more than one other person. This is too much and we need to introduce more stringent restrictions to protect Islanders.

“If we don’t take this action now, we could be facing more stringent restrictions. However, we anticipate that these actions will, in the next two to three weeks, lead to a reduction in case numbers. This will not happen straight away, as a change in measures takes at least two weeks to make an impact on figures. We must therefore take this action to protect both our population and our healthcare system.”

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