Stay at home

Updated: 8 April 2021

On Wednesday 3 March 2021 the Chief Minister introduced new COVID-19 Circuit Break measures to reduce a further community spread of COVID-19 infection.

To support this decision a number of restrictions have been put into place to protect the population of the Isle of Man during this current situation.

Refer to the current regulations for further explanation at Coronavirus (COVID-19) Legislation

On this page:

• Current advice
• Prevention and reducing the spread of infection
• Households, gatherings, education and childcare
• Waste management
• Businesses
• Symptoms, self-assessment and self-isolation
• Vaccination programme
• Health services and visiting hospital and care facilities
• Travel and borders
• What actions are your Government taking to be prepared?

You should only leave your home to:

• Shop for Essentials, which includes the purchase of food, medicine and pet supplies, though this should be as infrequent as possible
• Postal services
• Daily exercise, for an unlimited amount of time, as local as practically possible to where you live or reside
• Any medical reason or to provide care or help to a vulnerable person
• Transporting a child under 18 years of age between the homes of separated parents or for childcare purposes (see Childcare and Nurseries)
• Drop off or collection of a child from a school or other educational setting (schools will open to vulnerable children and those of essential workers/selected Year 11 and 13 students from 13 April, and hopefully to all children from 19 April)
• Travel to your workplace, where you cannot work from home (see business closures, exemptions and on-island essential workers for latest guidance)

See:
Leaving the house & exercise
On-Island essential worker list
Pets: Dogs, horses and livestock

• Practice regular handwashing or use alcohol-based hand gel when not available
• Wear a face covering, especially in busy places, sharing vehicles when working with other people and in places where this is mandatory (i.e. food stores, public transport, car sharing, etc).
• Follow 2 metre social distancing rules
• Opening windows and doors to improving ventilation in your home

See:
Handwashing and hygiene
Social distancing
Guidance of face coverings
Vulnerable groups
Public Heath Guidance

• From 00:01 on Friday 2 April, you will be able to meet outdoors with people from different households. The limit for outdoor gatherings will be 10 people. Please maintain a distance of 2 metres from those outside of your household, and it is strongly advised that you wear a face covering. You must not go indoors at somebody else’s property, unless you have teamed up with another household (see Teaming up with another Household for information on teaming up with a household for adults living alone, lone parent families and vulnerable people).
• Refer to current exemption notices for healthcare access, provision of care, vulnerable people and for children whose parents are separated, accommodation and emergency repairs, etc.
• You can exercise alone or with another household member for an unlimited amount of time each day
• No events to take place other than funerals with mitigations and compliance with any guidance issued by the Director of Public Health
• Sales and collections of items from other households currently restricted
• Schools and education settings will open to teachers on 12 April, to vulnerable children and those of essential workers/selected Year 11 and 13 students from 13 April, and hopefully to all children from 19 April
• Childcare settings and nurseries can open from 12 April to vulnerable children and those of essential workers

Some of the Island’s amenity sites have now re-opened: 

The Eastern and Western Civic Amenity Sites opened on 31 March

The Northern Civic Amenity Site will open on 3 April.

The Southern Civic Amenity Site currently remains closed.

See:
Gatherings, events and movement
Schools, Colleges and Universities
Managing household waste

• Work from Home is currently mandated, other than minimum staff for essential operations only
• Hospitality closed other than for takeaway/ delivery
• Nightclubs and public houses are currently closed
• Indoor Leisure closed to public (gym instructors may access gyms to record remote workouts and streams)
• Hotels and accommodation closed other than for isolation/ key workers
• Essential shops open with social distancing
• Non-essential shops closed to public other than collection/ delivery
• Outdoor leisure closed to public other than collection/delivery
• Lifestyle businesses closed to public other than collection/delivery
• Construction and trades – outdoors, with mitigations. Indoors vacant sites only, one worker per room, with mitigations.

See:
Business closures
On-Island essential worker list
Local food and produce delivery services

If you develop symptoms, you must self-isolate immediately and follow the information on the Symptoms and Self Assessment page.

If you have been told to self-isolate because you are a high-risk contact of another COVID-19 positive person and you have received a negative test, then you and other members of your household will be able to leave your house for one hour of exercise per day, so long as no-one else in the household has tested positive for COVID-19. 

More information available on the Revised exercise rules page.

See:
Symptoms and Self Assessment
Self-isolation
Leaving the house & exercise

Keep updated on the progress of the vaccination rollout and programme delivery.

Statistics are updated every 90 minutes showing how many vaccines have been administered Island wide. Visit COVID-19 vaccination statistics for latest details.

Appointment letters continue to be sent to priority groups inviting to them to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.  During this busy time and current lockdown situation the COVID 111 team have been experiencing very high call volumes so where possible please use the new Vaccination registration service which provides an online form to register interest in participating in the COVID-19 Vaccination programme.

Please only complete this online registration if you have received a vaccination invitation letter.

See Vaccination Information for full details and advice on this programme

New safety measures have been introduced in both Hospital and Care settings. Please refer to the current guidance for further advice:

• Hospitals Visiting Policy – 2 March 2021
• Manx Care Care Homes & Learning Disability Houses Visiting Policy

Our borders remain our first line of defence from importing unacceptable levels of the virus and we are likely to need some form of border restrictions and controls for some time to come. Borders will only be reopened once it is deemed clinically safe to do so.

Anyone is free to leave the Isle of Man at any time. The advice at the present time is that Isle of Man residents should not travel unless it is absolutely necessary.

For current Border restrictions in place see Borders Framework.

See:
Travel and borders

Test

Testing continues to be available for everyone with symptoms and private testing is also now available.

Trace

The Contact Tracing Team identify close contacts of confirmed cases so that they can self-isolate to manage the spread of the virus and control sporadic cases. This team will be ready to respond to any outbreak and will act quickly in identifying the source to ensure the protection of the broader population.

Act

We will constantly monitor the overall position, both globally and locally, and be ready to adapt our response rapidly and flexibly, as the situation demands. We will also actively require self-isolation for travellers and for those identified as high-risk contacts of positive cases.

See:
Long term exit strategy