IOM Covid removing restrictions

[Southfork]

So now we know. Only around 1/3 of people who are supposed to be self isolating on arrival are actually checked on by anyone. And out of 2,559 arrivals only 145 actually got any sort of visit. The rest was done by phone. 

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=57367

So without relying on nosy neighbours to police the system the entire process has little substance. Why aren’t we testing? 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Southfork

[tuono]

I know for a fact that the 111 people are making contact with some people and why should they or the Police have to contact or visit everyone who has been off the Island are is self-isloating.  Our society is based on trust and the Police mostly rely on members of the public letting them know that people aren’t necessarily doing what the rules say they should so there’s no difference in this case.  A vast majority are clearly doing the right things hence no positive case for almost 100 days now although no doubt we will get it back at some stage.  The testing and tracking people seem to be in place and ready to rack things up as and when they need to.  Calm down please!

[Southfork]

12 minutes ago, tuono said:

I know for a fact that the 111 people are making contact with some people and why should they or the Police have to contact or visit everyone who has been off the Island are is self-isloating.  Our society is based on trust and the Police mostly rely on members of the public letting them know that people aren’t necessarily doing what the rules say they should so there’s no difference in this case.  A vast majority are clearly doing the right things hence no positive case for almost 100 days now although no doubt we will get it back at some stage.  The testing and tracking people seem to be in place and ready to rack things up as and when they need to.  Calm down please!

Yes why should anyone be required to do their jobs properly in the midst of a global pandemic when we have steam trains to run and roads to mis manage instead? Yet we don’t want to test and bring in a proper tracking process? You need to calm down. 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Southfork

[Nom de plume]

When is the next Press Briefing?

[TheTeapot]

Next time there's a case probably.

[piebaps]

Seems the rules are a changing to compulsory quarantine all over the world while the clamour here is to stop it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52544307

#keepthebordersclosed (substitute "ports" for "borders" if you prefer)

[Southfork]

10 minutes ago, piebaps said:

#keepthebordersclosed (substitute "ports" for "borders" if you prefer)

Our borders don’t seem to be closed to me. There are over 600 people coming here a week many with very tenuous connections with the IOM who are voluntarily trusted to self isolate and only 1/3 of them are checked up on in anyway. You seem to think that this is sensible practice as opposed to testing arrivals and tracking people?

Edited August 20, 2020 by Southfork

[Banker]

18 minutes ago, Nom de plume said:

When is the next Press Briefing?

Howie is in Guernsey apparently, probably next week when update to borders policy announced 

[Roger Mexico]

41 minutes ago, Southfork said:

So now we know. Only around 1/3 of people who are supposed to be self isolating on arrival are actually checked on by anyone. And out of 2,559 arrivals only 145 actually got any sort of visit. The rest was done by phone. 

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/article.cfm?id=57367

So without relying on nosy neighbours to police the system the entire process has little substance. Why aren’t we testing? 

It's worth pointing out that this 'article' consists of the entirety of a government press release to which they have added a meaningless headline that is even worse than the original and changed the opening words from "Well over 600" to "More than 600".  And added para breaks.  So expecting them to pick up a phone and ask for more detail or to analyses the figures or ask questions on policy is clearly above our journalists' pay grade.

Edited to add:  Manx Radio do seem to have made a bit of an effort  and got some more information:

Quote

Now the agency has reached full capacity, government says every person self isolating will receive at least a phone call. 

[...] Due to the team being created quickly, not all positions were immediately filled.

It now employs around 60 staff, covering the Covid-111 line, Travel Notification Service, and the Ports Access Team.

But that just gives rise to the question why they couldn't recruit more temporary people in the first place before they started up the system.  It's not like there was a shortage of people looking for something to do.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Roger Mexico

[tuono]

17 minutes ago, Southfork said:

Our borders don’t seem to be closed to me. There are over 600 people coming here a week many with very tenuous connections with the IOM who are voluntarily trusted to self isolate and only 1/3 of them are checked up on in anyway. You seem to think that this is sensible practice as opposed to testing arrivals and tracking people?

And we still don’t have any cases so all is good. At least now everyone will get some kind of contact and reminded of their individual responsibilities at the very least.  I don’t think it will be too long, if we stay at zero cases, before we go to 7 days and a negative test at the end, paid for by the individual.

[Southfork]

10 minutes ago, tuono said:

And we still don’t have any cases so all is good. At least now everyone will get some kind of contact and reminded of their individual responsibilities at the very least.  I don’t think it will be too long, if we stay at zero cases, before we go to 7 days and a negative test at the end, paid for by the individual.

I don't think it will be too long before we’re back in lockdown as the system lacks any form of integrity or detailed checking. But, hey, the borders are closed so we’re all safe! Right? 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Southfork

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Banker said:

Sorry athats completely wrong, we do have capacity for testing and the person in charge has said so. Testing is way to go and heathrow airport are pushing to trial it for U.K. Arrivals 

Again you're missing the point.  We may have the capacity for testing - at least at current levels of travel.  But If we didn't have the capacity to administer properly a simple system of quarantine, we certainly won't have it to administer a much more complicated system of testing, contacting, checking, limited quarantine, tracing contacts and all the rest. 

You're basically demanding that a small child who is still falling off their training cycle should immediately start riding a motorbike.  The solution would be get someone who can ride a motorbike first.

[Banker]

21 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

It's worth pointing out that this 'article' consists of the entirety of a government press release to which they have added a meaningless headline that is even worse than the original and changed the opening words from "Well over 600" to "More than 600".  And added para breaks.  So expecting them to pick up a phone and ask for more detail or to analyses the figures or ask questions on policy is clearly above our journalists' pay grade.

Edited to add:  Manx Radio do seem to have made a bit of an effort  and got some more information:

But that just gives rise to the question why they couldn't recruit more temporary people in the first place before they started up the system.  It's not like there was a shortage of people looking for something to do.

This extra activity only happened following Chris Thomas question as to what was position with track & trace

[Banker]

1 minute ago, Roger Mexico said:

Again you're missing the point.  We may have the capacity for testing - at least at current levels of travel.  But If we didn't have the capacity to administer properly a simple system of quarantine, we certainly won't have it to administer a much more complicated system of testing, contacting, checking, limited quarantine, tracing contacts and all the rest. 

You're basically demanding that a small child who is still falling off their training cycle should immediately start riding a motorbike.  The solution would be get someone who can ride a motorbike first.

Oh didn’t know you knew the testing capacity and had discussed it with relevant people!

watch out for next week 

[Albert Tatlock]

To me, this looks like they are set on level 4 currently, but in practice are working based on level 3...