Coronavirus: Chief Minister not ready to ease IOM border

The Isle of Man's borders reopened to residents on 20 July

Manx residents will have to wait longer before family can visit the island after the chief minister said he was not ready to relax border restrictions.

The Isle of Man's ports are currently closed to non-residents, except those using the air bridge with Guernsey.

Howard Quayle said the coronavirus cases in the UK were still too high and he did not want "throw away the position we have now".

The island last saw a positive test for Covid-19 on 20 May.

The Isle of Man is currently on level four of the government's five-stage plan for relaxing border restrictions, which allows for residents to leave the island provided they self-isolate on return.

Mr Quayle said he was not ready to move to level three, which would grant non-residents with family or close friends on the island permission to visit on the proviso they isolate.

He said he was aware that people were "suffering" because they could not see family, and he hoped the recent move to seven-day isolation would make it easier for residents to travel to the UK.

He added that cases in the UK would have to fall to 1 in 5,000 people before he would consider relaxing restrictions further.

On Thursday, the government announced it would allow residents returning to the island from Monday to self-isolate for seven days if they paid £50 for a coronavirus test that came back negative.