The Government has published legislation to prohibit the importation of COVID vaccines, or anything purporting to be a COVID vaccine without the written approval of the Medical Director of the Gibraltar Health Authority.

A statement continued: “Gibraltar is reaching the end of the vaccination programme and the vaccines that have been delivered to the members of our community have been provided to Gibraltar by the United Kingdom Government and delivered by the RAF.

“The vaccines have been made available to every single person who is resident in Gibraltar as well as to those who are not resident but are in employment in Gibraltar.

“At present, the suppliers of both the Pfizer BioNtec vaccine and the Astra Zeneca vaccine only supply to Governments so the origin of any such vaccine in Gibraltar supplied by anyone other than through the GHA would be questionable.”

The Minister for Health and with responsibility for Civil Contingencies, Samantha Sacramento, said “The UK Government have been extremely generous with the provision of vaccine in Gibraltar in terms of volume, frequency and speed so that there is no need for these to be made available privately.

“In any event, as vaccines are only sold directly to governments, any vaccine not provided to the Government would have a questionable origin so in order to protect and safeguard our community, its importation is now prohibited.

“The GHA continues to have vaccines available and I would urge any member of the public who has not yet taken up the offer of the vaccine to register their interest online at https://www.gha.gi/registration-for-gibraltar-residents and they will be called with the offer of an appointment date and time.”