Isle of Man lifts all coronavirus restrictions after 20 days without Covid cases

Lockdown restrictions of the Isle of Man have been lifted, after the Chief Minister announced the island had not recorded an “unexplained” case of coronavirus for 20 days.

Residents will be able to leave their homes, and schools and businesses are set to reopen, though people will still be barred from entering the island from elsewhere.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle told Sky News the success of dealing with Covid-19 was also due to a government "policy of eradication", and thanked the "supportive, patriotic" islanders for following lockdown rules.

“We have border restrictions. We allow people over for compassionate travel, key workers, and our own local people going away to maybe, sadly, funerals, in the United Kingdom and our patient transfer into the north west, but other than that, we have a closed border policy,” Mr Quayle explained.

"We had no Covid on the Isle of Man from June 15 to January 7 of this year. Sadly, we had some cases on the Isle of Man - we had to go in quick and fast, shut down our island to enable us to eradicate.

"We have a government policy of eradication of Covid, not living with it, and I suppose I put that down, the success, down to the great Manx public.

"They've followed the rules, they've been very supportive, patriotic, great community spirit, and it's down to the great Manx public that we find ourselves in this fortunate position again.

Lockdown restrictions of the Isle of Man have been lifted, after the Chief Minister announced the island had not recorded an “unexplained” case of coronavirus for 20 days. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

"We have had 20 days now without any unexplained community cases. The only cases we've had recently have been related to travel.

"We make everyone quarantine, isolate for 14 days before we allow them back in the community having had three tests, so we're pretty confident that when they come out of their quarantine, that they haven't got Covid."

In December, a Scottish man was jailed on the island after riding a jet ski 25 miles across the Irish Sea.

Dale McLaughlan, from Irvine, was arrested shortly after arriving to see his girlfriend, Jessica Radcliffe, on December 11.

Lockdown restrictions of the Isle of Man have been lifted, after the Chief Minister announced the island had not recorded an “unexplained” case of coronavirus for 20 days. (Photo by Andrew Barton/Getty Images)

The 28-year-old was given a four week prison sentence, but served only a fortnight before being returned to the mainland at Heysham in Lancashire.

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