Covid: Elimination of Isle of Man spread 'could take six weeks'

It could be a further five weeks before there is enough "clear water" to assume the spread of Covid-19 on the Isle of Man has been eliminated, the public health director has said.

Henrietta Ewart said the island now appeared to be reaching the peak of new infections caused by community spread.

However, she said a spread in isolating families would continue to drive new infections up over the coming days.

The island entered its third lockdown a week ago amid a surge in active cases.

There are currently 580 people infected with virus on the island.

Dr Ewart said at the point the island entered the current 21-day circuit breaker, there were still people with Covid-19 who were yet to develop symptoms mixing within the community.

While the full incubation period for the virus is 14 days, the average period for symptoms to show was "around five or six days", so those infected pre-lockdown should become apparent by the "middle of this week", she said.

As the daily rise in new cases had been falling since reaching a record high of 110 on Monday, it was hoped the recent slow down meant that "community spread is getting under control", she added.

The trajectory of cases in a recent outbreak in Guernsey, where it was five weeks before no new infections were recorded, "should not be dissimilar to ours", Dr Ewart said.

Health officials would usually leave a bit of a margin beyond the standard incubation period to "make sure there's no cases from the very tail of things waiting to come through" before "discussing whether it's safe to be lifting restrictions, either all in one or in a phased approach", she said.

"We're probably looking at another four-five weeks, six weeks total before we can be clear," she added.

Why not follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to [email protected]