OLIVE PRESS
The FREE
The Rock’s only free local paper
Vol. 5 Issue 133 www.theolivepress.es October 14th - October 27th 2020
GIBRALTAR’S top government departments have met to discuss how the territory would deal with a no-deal Brexit. The Brexit Strategic Group was chaired by the Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Garcia, with the frontier being the main cause for concern.
Commerce
The supply chain, commerce, critical services, health and social care were all examined. Law and order, public services and the relevant legislation are also being readied for the change. Leaders of the Civil Service, Customs, the port, police, environmental department, health services and Gibraltar House in Brussels all met to discuss options.
HARD BREXIT: Discussions have taken a look at many aspects of Gibraltar life, including the border
It follows meetings in Madrid between the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and Spanish offi-
cials. The next official meeting to discuss the MOU agreements signed last year is now sched-
uled for October 21 in La Linea. Regional Spanish mayors have asked the Spanish government
to work on a separate deal if the UK cannot trash one out with the European Union.
PARTY OVER
REQUEST: Don’t party inside plea
Youngsters asked to take care as coronavirus second wave hits YOUNG people are being warned that partying could hurt the elderly as Gibraltar registered its highest ever number of COVID-19 active cases. There are now 73 people with the virus on the Rock, with almost daily reports of new infections at schools that cause mass self-isolation orders. To avoid a second lockdown, the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has ramped up plans for tests, which could soon rise to over 1,000 a day. There are currently two patients in the COVID ward of
By John Culatto
St Bernard’s Hospital. “Gibraltar has the highest number of resident active cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic reached us in March,” announced a government spokesman. “This could become very serious if the situation continues to deteriorate.” Family parties have been mainly blamed for this rise, so the advice is to do them in the open air and keep them to under 20 participants.
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Risk
“There is a very real risk that anyone who contracts COVID-19, even if young, can then pass it on to adults who may be over 70 or have underlying health conditions,” he continued. New cases are being discovered at nearly all Gibraltar’s
schools with the latest being at St Joseph’s. The south district school saw five staff members and four pupils go into self-isolation for having close contact with the newly-discovered case. A third case reported at Bayside school, has sent 30 pupils into self-isolation. One staff member and six pupils were already in self-isolation for the other case reported last week at the secondary school. Meanwhile, two COVID-19 cases have been discovered at Bishop Fitzgerald school, leading to nine pupils and 11 staff members being told to self-isolate. At St Anne’s, two members of staff and 12 pupils have been sent home to self-iso-
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See page 9
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late. Wests i d e School saw 13 pupils placed into self-isolation for close contact with a case. “Our students are now at school and in contact with each other,” said a spokesman. “The spread of the virus between them is to an extent unavoidable.” A programme to test 1,000 school users every fortnight has also been announced. New saliva tests will streamline the process and allow quicker samples to be taken. “By testing the frontline of education every two weeks it
comes out to about a sixth of Gibraltar’s population,” added Picardo. It is now necessary for parents picking up their children at school gates to wear masks and be socially distanced. Penalties for not doing so will be enforced with an on-the-spot fine of £100 or £10,000 if proven in court. “We are now testing in the region of 700 people a day,” revealed Picardo. “We expect to ramp that up
even further now to closer to 1,000 a day and beyond. “Already we are testing much more than just about any other nation.”
Responsibility
The testing area at Rooke has now moved to a new location at the Mid-Town coach park to be better protected from the winter weather. The Chief Minister urged people to ‘act responsibly’, use the COVID-19 contact tracing app and wear masks where required. Opinion Page 6