22 December 2020

Update on Covid-19 swabbing in the Falkland Islands

This is the final weekly swabbing update of 2020, the next update will be on Tuesday 5 January, unless there is an urgent or critical need to communicate further in the meantime.

As of today, Tuesday 22 December, the results are as follows:

• Total number of swab tests taken and processed to date: 5,467
• Total number of swabs taken but not yet tested: 84
• Total number of positive test results since 3 April 2020: 29
• Number of current positive test results within the Islands: 12

All of these positive test results have arisen as a result of surveillance swabbing during quarantine. None of these individuals are significantly unwell and all have remained in quarantine since their arrival into the Islands. They continue to be monitored by medical professionals and will not be able to leave quarantine until they have fulfilled their 14 days in isolation and have also tested negative for Covid-19 twice.

As a reminder, swabbing is only offered in Stanley as KEMH does not have the resources to provide a mobile screening service across Camp or the Outer Islands. For this reason, people are encouraged to quarantine in Stanley and the government can help facilitate this via the housing department. Anyone choosing to quarantine in Camp can travel to Stanley on day 15, once they have completed their quarantine, for a Covid-19 swab test. The government is continuing to explore options for swabbing, such as self-testing kits, and will update the public once it has carried out more research into this possibility.

Finally, the government would like to thank everyone for following the guidance and for playing their part in helping protect the wider community from Covid-19. It is due to people’s diligence that we can have one of the most ‘normal’ festive seasons in the world. In the New Year we will be sharing our plans for our vaccination programme, as these start to take shape. In the meantime, we would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas.