Here’s the full statement from the Chief Minister from this afternoon’s COVID-19 briefing:

Good afternoon and welcome once again to No 6 Convent Place to our daily information conference.

This afternoon I am joined by Doctor Daniel Cassaglia who will be providing us with some of the detail of the Nightingale facility and the new Laboratory set up at the University.

Both of these facilities are going to be a very important part of our forward-looking posture as we transition to living with COVID-19 in the background.

Today, I will concentrate my time, before Dr Cassaglia addresses us, on the GHA and on ERS.

I want to start  though, by giving you today’s updated statistics.

We have now carried out almost 5,000 tests for COVID-19. 

The actual number is 4,941.

We have received 4,689 results already.

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 remains 147 and the number of active cases  is therefore still only  3.

I will never tire of saying that we have had no deaths to date.

Our Nightingale facility remains a COVID-19 patient virgin.

And our COVID ICU and OUR COVIDJOHN WARD at St Bernard’s remain empty of COVID-19 patients.

Of all of the things I have led on as Chief Minister, that record, as we come towards the beginning of PHASE 2 of our plan to de-escalate and Unlock the Rock, is undoubtedly the one of which I am  proudest.

Today I went to see the people who made this a reality.

I visited the GHA, where the posture is moving towards the unlocking that we have proposed.

As a result, I have been able to express my gratitude and the gratitude of the whole Government and indeed of the whole  community to the people on the medical front line.

I visited the new Primary Care Centre.

They are really now in a great environment in that new facility that has really, really, come into its own.

This new facility has enabled is to put in place social distancing and to put in place different mechanisms for our GPs to see patients.

And our GPs and  Primary Care staff have stepped up in a remarkable way.

I want to thank each and every one of them, not least Dr. Elaine Pincho, who eloquently talked me through how they are doing some phone consultations with members of our whole community, not just the elderly.

I think we are now providing an incredibly modern and efficient service that our GPs, all our Primary Care staff and our citizens deserve and that we should further invest in going forward.

We have to ensure that we cement the advances that our medical professionals in Primary Care have delivered.

They will have our support in  doing so.

And I must say that I was very proud and pleased indeed to see this new facility in operation.

I want to thank Rose Suissa, a veteran of all our Primary Care Centres since they started in the early 1970s  for her guidance in the establishment of that new facility.

And Suzanne Romero for the work that she has done in bringing this new facility into operation.

I also want to especially thank Dr Valerie Flores for her attention this morning as she outlined to me what the new protocols were for the operation of the facility.

I sincerely felt that the numbers they were dealing with showed how remarkable the service that they have provided has been.

Listen to this, in this time, in the time since we declared the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Primary Care Centre have dealt with 24,155 patient contacts, with that figure including the 111 call line and those called to inform them of negative results.

They’ve dealt with 12,000 nursing contacts, mostly face to face but also telephone consultations. 

I was very pleased to also be able to pop in to see the District Nurses today who have also done such an extraordinary job in this time.

A sincere thanks to  all of them.

Our Primary Care Centre have dealt with 15,000 repeat prescriptions, through telephone and email consultations also in that period.

For a community of our size those are literally WOW numbers.

I  then saw the incredible work being done in the St Bernard’s laboratory.

There we went from having no capability to test for COVID-19 to being self-contained in our ability to test, even before the new lab up at the university established this week.

Alex Menez, Audrey Olivares-Smith and Natalie Hernandez showed me the extent of the work that they have done and I saw how their teams have been augmented by public sector workers who are now helping out in the lab.

The level of equipment that we have acquired and the expertise of our staff there is clearly top of the league.

All of the tests that we are going to be able to do relate to the companies that have supplied our equipment, which is therefore compatible with the testing we will be doing for anti-bodies also.

I very much look forward to going back to the lab to hear more about the incredible work that they are doing there – and not just on COVID-19 related issues but on all the afflictions and ailments that we test for in our community.

You should all know, as I found out today, that our lab is quality tested against 80,000 UK NHS laboratories and I am told it is always in the top tier of  assessments.

Again, we have invested greatly in the service provided by the lab – and that means we have spent a lot of money there since 2012 – but it is money very well spent and invested in the great people who we rely on for this service.

I then visited the COVID ICU and the COVID JOHN WARD, as well as A&E.

What an incredible set of people I met there.

The doctors, nurses, orderlies and cleaners who are putting themselves in the way of this infection in order to save the rest of us from it.

I was incapable of expressing our gratitude to them eloquently enough.

At John Ward I saw Dr Gareth Latin and his dedicated team of professionals and Matron Joylene Gonzalez.

At ICU I was shown round by Arantxa Velez and ICU Clinical Nurse Manager Giselle Tosso.

I do not think it is possible for me to explain to you how brave these professionals are.

And how unassuming they are in the context of what they have done to date and what they may be called upon to do in future.

They are people of jaw-dropping humility and ability in equal measure.

Finally, I went to see the work being done by the great people who are manning the new 111 service.

I want to also thank Dr Elaine Flores, Elaine Ferro and Sigurd Haveland

That is really an incredible new back bone to our health service.

A new method of triaging every single call that comes into the GHA even the majority of the 190 calls.

That really has been a step change in how we interface with those needing care.

I must tell you, that those that I saw this morning, that it has been their stepping up, and their diligence and their work  has delivered the lack of casualties to this disease.

They will have the ear of the Government for their proposals to improve and further integrate their systems into the provision of health care going forward.

They will be the new filter to the service.

And they will have me, in my capacity as the Minister for Public Finance for this nation, defending the investment that they deserve and need.

Just as I have every penny of investment since 2012 and I will continue to do.

I was not able to visit ERS today, where we also have many unsung heroes.

But I do hope to be able to visit them soon.

I was not able to visit for the same reason that many of you are not able to visit your relatives there yet.

Because it is not yet safe to do so.

But Antonio Marin and Susan Vallejo and her team will be working to put protocols in place to enable you to do so as soon as it is safe.

We constantly review this. I’ve been in touch with the Leader of the Opposition on exactly this issue also.

And if possible, we  will find some mechanism to provide some degree of visitation access as soon as we safely can.

We will continue to work to try and provide that safe mechanism..

Yesterday I was, however, able to visit one of the key factors allowing us to start the process of unlocking.

And that is  the new lab facility up at Europa.

In less than a week Daniel Cassaglia and Wayne Acris, together with so many other colleagues no doubt, have been able to get this facility running.

I think what they have done is really quite unprecedented.

Our thanks to the University also for its unstinting support, but in particular to these two gentlemen and their teams.

And thanks also to Dr Bhatti and his team at Public Health Gibraltar.

Danny will now be able to tell you a little more about the new lab and the processes it will follow.

Being up at Europa also means it is literally a stone’s throw from the Nightingale facility which Danny also was the lead clinician for.

He will also tell us a little about how we will wind down Nightingale and keep it ready to go should the virus return with any virulence.

Before I hand over to him, I should add that I have not been able to mention everyone I saw today, or mention everyone who deserves praise in the GHA for the work done. 

Evelyn Cervan, Krish Rawal and Paul Balban have all also done so much.

So many have too. 

The cleanliness has been key, the maintenance, the facilities management. 

Everyone has stepped up.

So, to all 1,159 employees of the Gibraltar Health Authority – and the locums on top of that!

Thank you, thank you sincerely on behalf of the People of Gibraltar, thank you from the heart of the Rock. And this is not just talk.

When all this is over, I will put our money where my mouth is and I will ensure we always continue to have the investment and resources we need going forward to continue to enjoy the health services that we need and deserve.

Now, over to Dr Cassaglia who has also bravely stepped up when we needed him.