Covid: Isle of Man deaths 'emotional' for chief minister

Howard Quayle announced the island's first Coivd-19 death at a briefing on 1 April 2020

Announcing the Isle of Man's first Covid-19 death was the "toughest part" of holding the top job in Manx politics, the chief minister has said.

Howard Quayle confirmed the death in a briefing on 1 April 2020.

Mr Quayle, who has said he will be stepping back from politics in September, said that moment came at the end of a "very emotional day".

He said that while the island's death toll could have been "far worse", the 29 deaths were "still too many".

It had been thought up to 300 islanders could die from coronavirus, he added.

Preparations for the potential impact of the pandemic saw Douglas Council treble the number of staff trained to operate the island's only crematorium.

'Never forget'

Mr Quayle said the stress and pressure of equipping the island's health services to be able to cope with impact of the virus had been "enormous" and he had felt "an awful lot of responsibility".

He said the government "worked our socks off" to get a dedicated Covid-19 ward established at Noble's Hospital, but thankfully it had not needed to be "used in anger".

"I'm delighted to be able to say that we built something that we never used because that to me is one of those rare times when you can say that was a success story," he said.

However, he said he was "nervous" about labelling the island's response to the pandemic successful, because "we did lose people, and we should never forget that".

"The fact that it was significantly less than we thought we were going to lose doesn't impact on the sadness," he said.

"It's hard to say a success story when you've had deaths."