GSD: Unlock The Rock Road Map “Needs Reviewing”
The GSD has today said that, rather than “jump into” introducing new restrictions on restaurants the Government should review the Unlock Road Map and consider whether there is now a case for restoring further freedoms at a faster pace.
A statement continued: “Gibraltar is now at zero active COVID19 cases. The Unlock Document Road Map envisaged Full Unlock on 1 August against a backdrop that there would likely be active cases at that point and that the virus would have to be managed for the foreseeable future. The reason that there were different phases of the Unlock programme was to manage the restoration of freedoms so that the numbers of active cases would not surge. If we are at zero cases now then why not bring forward the restoration of further freedoms, access to further public services and full Unlock to early or mid- July?
“The Unlock Document itself recognised the principle of dynamic review in response to circumstances and in his Foreword the Chief Minister accepted that the road map might change and that “some of the changes we envisage may be accelerated. Others may have to be reversed or slowed down further.”
Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi said:
“The lockdown was eased on 2 May with the opening of shops and the social lockdown ending on 21 May. Restaurants re-opened with partial capacity on 1 June. All those moments in the unlock process could have caused a surge of cases and so a gap was justified between them. The fact that the border has now been open for residents in both directions for a week also adds a new dimension.
“In fact we have seen that there has only been a relatively small number of new confirmed cases since 2 May with the number of active cases in Gibraltar now down to zero. The Government itself made clear on Tuesday that there has only been one symptomatic positive case of COVID 19 in a month with most other cases picked up in random testing. The number of tests has now grown significantly and this is an important monitor on the state of COVID in Gibraltar. Additionally, the small number of persons detected with antibodies in the sample of antibody tests indicates the prevalence of COVID in the community may be quite small.
“The number of cases may grow but the Unlock Document itself made clear that the overall danger point was 1000 active cases and that for restrictions to be reintroduced there would need to be a persistent daily increase in key indicators to trigger alarm.
“None of that is currently the case. The scenes at Chatham Counterguard which have been widely reported do cause concern because it indicates over exuberance with some people not respecting social distancing recommendations. But these issues are not addressed by the blunt instrument of introducing a cap of midnight on restaurants. The majority of these have been functioning well since 1 June and the number of active cases does not justify further restrictions. What there needs to be is broad respect of new norms of behaviour.
“The real debate that needs to be had is whether some of the current restrictions are proportionate given the current fact that there are no active COVID cases. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that the Unlock Road Map was drafted in April. This neither envisaged nor required that the number of active cases would be negligible. The steps and timescales envisaged then need to be kept in dynamic review to see what continues to be justified. In the same way that there would need to be greater controls if COVID returns in numbers the lifting of restrictions should be positively reviewed if the situation is so controlled that restricting commercial and individual freedoms is no longer proportionate.
“There was for example a social gathering restriction introduced on 21 May when the lockdown ended by which people could not gather in groups of more than 12. We consider there is a case to now review this rule by enlarging the social bubble and advance further planned steps. These decisions need to take account of public health advice and respond to the situation in which Gibraltar finds itself or could reasonably find itself. We will need to continue to be vigilant and act if new clusters emerge in future. But this should not hold back the restoration of further freedoms now.”
