The Diplomat
Gibraltar yesterday experienced its first day with no active cases of Covid-19 among its population or visitors for ten months, the Government of Gibraltar announced in a statement.
The statement said that although no new resident cases have emerged in the last six weeks, yesterday was the first day with zero resident and visitor cases since 21 July 2020.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo expressed his delight at what he described as “fantastic news”, which comes a day before the UK reopens its travel corridor with Gibraltar and opens up the possibility for the colony to welcome British tourists.
“This allows me to be confident that we are on the right track to regain the life we had before this pandemic. Although this achievement is a step in the right direction, we still need to be cautious”.
The chief minister referred to the “worrying news” reported on Friday by the prime minister, Boris Johnson, about the prevalence of the so-called new Indian variants, and noted that this calls for reflection and keeping “under constant review the possibility of requiring testing for arrivals from the UK”, given the large number of cases of that variant being reported there.
Since the start of the pandemic, Gibraltar has confirmed 4,286 infections, of which 4,192 people have recovered, after the three visitors who remained with the active virus were cured. The number of deaths remains at 94.
The number of tests carried out has increased to a total of 244,039, of which 31 are pending results. The number of people in self-isolation has fallen to four in the last 24 hours. Gibraltar has administered 74,461 vaccinations and a total of 35,556 people have already received their second dose. A significant number of those vaccinated are cross-border workers.
