Vaccines are going to be offered to crews of sea and air carriers after a cluster of cases was identified.

Chief Minister Howard Quayle said the Council of Ministers had met twice today to evaluate what he described as a ’fluid and evolving situation’.

But Ministers have decided not to bring in any extra restrictions today - given this is a defined cluster of cases with as yet no unexplained transmission or evidence of community spread.

Mr Quayle said: ’With contact tracing continuing and our belief that we understand the chain of transmission, we have decided that we will not be bringing in any restrictions today.

’Instead we will continue to monitor the situation and the Council of Ministers will meet again tomorrow to review the latest information.'

Seven new cases were identified today.

The index case was an island-based member of the Steam Packet crew who contacted 111 after developing symptoms.

They were immediately offered a test and instructed to self-isolate along with other members of their household. The positive test result came back late yesterday.

Mr Quayle said the crew member did not work in a customer facing role, and so the likelihood of any contact between this individual and passengers appears low.

Other members of their household who were identified as close contacts were also offered tests, which all agreed to. Further contact tracing began work to identify anyone who had been in close contact with the index case.

Fifteen people were quickly identified. All have been contacted, immediately instructed to self-isolate, and offered tests.

All 15 contacts have now undergone testing. Six of the results came back as positive and nine negative.

’These six cases appear to have a clear and identified train of transmission back to the index case,’ said Mr Quayle.

’This means that - for the moment at least - we have a single cluster and no unexplained cases of Covid-19 in the community.

’Whilst this is encouraging, I must stress that it is early days.’

All 15 people identified through contact tracing have been instructed to self-isolate for up to 21 days, regardless of whether their test result was positive or negative.

Other members of their households have also been instructed to self-isolate. They will be offered further tests on day 14 of their self-isolation.

Mr Quayle said contact tracing is currently ongoing and the swabbing and laboratory teams stand ready.

’Part of this work is identifying any locations of interest which is ongoing and we will announce these as and when the picture becomes clearer, which is likely to be later tonight and through into tomorrow,’ he said.

The Steam Packet crew have strict measures and hygiene requirements to help prevent transmission of the virus.

As the cluster extends beyond a single household, there is clearly work to be done to identify how this situation has arisen, said the Chief Minister.

’For this reason it is not appropriate for me to speculate further here today,’ he added.

He said there was an obvious wider risk of staff and crew of air and sea carriers - particularly those who live in areas where transmission levels are high - to bring the virus to the island.

CoMin this morning agreed that vaccinating the crew of our air and sea carriers is a ’sensible and responsible move which will strengthen our defences against the virus’, said Mr Quayle.

Vaccination is therefore going to be offered to crew at the Steam Packet and Mezeron, the Ramsey-based freight operator, as well as Loganair, which operates regular flights to the island, and our air ambulance crews.

’This will help to reduce the risk to our crews who travel between the Isle of Man and the UK, or who work with UK-based colleagues, from becoming seriously ill as a result of contracting the virus, and potentially unwittingly spreading infection to Isle of Man passengers, and possibly more widely on the island,’ said Mr Quayle.