3 September 2021
Following the arrival of the flight from the UK on Tuesday, 24 August, and as part of St Helena’s robust COVID-19 testing regime for passengers completing their 10-day quarantine period, a family in quarantine together have tested positive for COVID-19. As a result and per Standard Operating Procedures in the Health Service Directorate these passengers will not be released from quarantine at this time.
The quarantine period for the family has been extended by a further seven days and a revised testing regime has been put in place. They will only be permitted to leave quarantine at the end of these seven days if they all test negative from a PCR COVID-19 test.
The family, whose symptoms are mild and asymptomatic, will therefore remain in home quarantine and the Health Service Directorate will continue to monitor them over the next seven days.
All other passengers that arrived on the same flight have tested negative and will therefore be released from quarantine at 7pm today, Friday 3 September 2021. No other contacts have been identified.
This is a scenario that St Helena Government (SHG) has planned and prepared for. Robust measures for effectively managing arrivals to St Helena have been in place throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. These protocols have been developed in liaison with experts from Public Health England and are designed to ensure that any person arriving to the Island is kept separate from the general public until the Senior Medical Officer can be assured that they do not pose a risk of introducing COVID-19 into the community.
The identification of the positive cases demonstrates the effectiveness of the Island’s current quarantine and testing regime. The positive cases are contained in quarantine and there is no community spread of COVID-19 on St Helena at this time.
Due to there being no community spread of COVID-19 on St Helena the existing Travel Corridor between St Helena and Ascension Island will continue to operate for the upcoming shuttle flights.
SHG
3 September 2021