New Covid-19 rules in place from Tuesday as Island goes to Alert Level 2

Masks will be mandatory from Tuesday 30th November at 4am on the Island when travelling on public transport and in health and care settings.

Chief Minister Alf Cannan MHK announced during tonight's Covid-19 briefing that all international travellers who are fully vaccinated arriving from outside the Common Travel Area – that is anywhere outside of the UK, Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey – must self-isolate and have a PCR test within 48 hours of arriving in the Isle of Man.

They must remain in self-isolation until they have received the result back. If they are not fully vaccinated they will still be required to undergo the 7 day isolation period.

All travellers from within the Common Travel Area, regardless of their vaccination status will have to commit to undertaking a Lateral Flow Test within 12 hours of arrival in the Isle of Man.

All arrivals from within the CTA will be required to make a clear statement as to their intent and understanding of this new testing requirement on their landing form and the government will develop a facility for them to tell the government when they have done so.

The Chief Minister said: "I am today confirming that we are raising our status from Level 1 to Alert Level 2. This means that we are increasing the ask for national mitigations.

"I can therefore tell you that from 4am on Tuesday morning it will be mandatory to wear a face-covering on public transport – including on the ferry and aircraft – and in all health and social care settings. Indeed we would ask everyone to take steps to adhere to this immediately."

He continued: "In other settings, particularly retail premises such as shops and lifestyle settings and in schools, the Government is now expecting everyone to wear a mask. We do not want to make the non-wearing of masks a criminal offence but we will legislate further if we need to. For now, we ask everyone to wear them in these indoor public settings. Like the UK we will not be insisting on further measures in hospitality.

"And of course Level 2 means we are asking everyone to increase their use of self-tests - especially before attending events or gatherings."