Shops To Re-Open On Saturday As Lockdown Is Gradually Relaxed
Shops which were closed by the COVID regulations last month will be able to open as from Saturday as part of the first steps in a gradual relaxation of Gibraltar’s lockdown.
In order to re-open, retailers will need to implement social distancing measures, provide sanitising gels and, if distancing cannot be observed, provide staff members with masks.
Shops will only be able to open from 10:00h until 17:30.
The Chief Minister announced these changes at this afternoon’s COVID-19 briefing at Number Six.
Also allowed to open will be estate agents and, from Monday and with a permit, “self-contained” construction sites. Hairdressers and beauticians will also be able to operate by appointment only. Ship repair activity will also resume.
Large scale random testing will be carried out in each of the sectors which are being eased open.
The relaxation measures will be monitored over a three week “pause” period to determine if there is a rise in the number of infections.
THE NEW NORMAL
The Chief Minister warned that social distancing would be “here to stay for the foreseeable future” and any phased relaxation of restrictions would have to be “gradual…prudent [and] closely controlled.”
The relaxation, he stressed, would work in tandem with a new “aggressive” regime of testing, contact tracing and isolation of those who test positive for the virus. This would form the strategy for a future in which the community adapts to ways of living with the virus.
Mr Picardo said the current lockdown was having its desired effect but there was a “social need” to relax some aspects.
He also cited public health and economic reasons: “…we can say that our lockdown is working. We have succeeded in reducing the rate of community infections. We have succeeded in ensuring that the GHA has not been overwhelmed by patients requiring care for COVID-19. We have succeeded in rolling out a programme to protect businesses and employees in our economy. But I know that the social need to relax the lockdown is greater each day. And the potential long-term public health risk of continual extensions of lockdown also give rise to their own risks. And the potential long term economic damage is worse each day that passes.”
Despite the unlocking of these sectors, the businesses that reopen will still be considered included for the purposes of the BEAT COVID Measures and will still be able to claim the minimum wage payment for inactive employees and eligible for other announced relief measures.
More details will be made public in an “Unlock The Rock” document being prepared by the Government.
