Press Release - Recreational time extended 2020.05.05

Recreational time extended from 2 hours to 4 hours

The amount of time Islanders can spend outside of their house for exercise or recreational activities is being extended from 2 to 4 hours. The Committee for Health & Social Care have agreed to make this change, supported by advice from the Director for Public Health, as Guernsey reaches a sixth day without a new positive case of COVID-19.

Deputy Heidi Soulsby, President of the Committee for Health & Social Care said:

"When we announced our Framework for Exiting Lockdown last week, we made clear that the timeline included for each phases was conservative and that we absolutely would be flexible, accelerating some of the steps towards unlocking where the evidence showed it was safe and reasonable to do so. It's encouraging that already we're able to bring forward this move, to extend the time people can spend outside their homes. This had been marked as something we would do when we moved to phase 3, but we're confident doing it now presents a very low risk."

The 4 hours that people can now spend outside their homes does not need to be taken all at once, people can split their recreational time across the day however they want, but it is important they do still limit their time over the day to no more than 4 hours.

Dr Nicola Brink, Director of Public Health said

"By extending the amount of time people can spend outside their homes, we think this will help support the mental and physical health and wellbeing for some who have understandably felt constrained by the two hour limit, such as families with young children. It's important we balance the need of limiting the spread of COVID-19, which is incredibly important to protecting our health infrastructure, with the other health impacts people experience while 'locked down'. But no one is obliged to spend as much as 4 hours outdoors, and those who feel it presents too much risk for their personal circumstances should limit their recreational time to what they feel is really necessary."