In a statement to the States yesterday, Deputy Anne Pryke said that the increasing number of cases in the UK ‘did not bode well’ for Jersey and warned Islanders to prepare for a ‘significant level of infection’ in September and October.
She spoke out as health chiefs in the UK revealed that an apparently healthy GP and six-year-old girl died after contracting the disease. Seventeen people in Britain have now died from the H1N1 virus.
Deputy Pryke told Members: ‘It has now been confirmed that the UK is one of the countries with the highest levels of infection – so much so that the Chief Medical Officer of England announced last week that the policy of his government is not one of containment but treating people when they are sick.’
Deputy Pryke said that Jersey’s Health Department had stockpiled Tamiflu, bought masks and other breathing apparatus and developed plans to mobilise the Hospital to cope with a mass outbreak. Last week the Health Department launched a high-profile public health campaign to help prevent a mass summer outbreak of swine flu.
A flu helpline is available on 445566 between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm from Monday to Friday.
