Call for Govt to review its policy on testing of potential covid-19 cases and consider measures to assist business and employees

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 Thursday, March 12, 2020 - 10:31

The GSD says it welcomes and understands the legislative and practical measures being taken by the Government which are focused on containing an outbreak and mitigating the spread of the COVID-19 virus throughout Gibraltar. We also appreciate that this is a fast-developing panorama with daily developments. It is important to keep things in active review to ensure support systems are robust in case of an outbreak and that the consequences of any wider outbreak can be dealt with.

Additionally the Government needs to consider how it assists businesses and private sector employees to overcome the consequences of a wider outbreak that may force employees into self-isolation and affect the ability of businesses to conduct normal business.

Providing regular and updated information to persons in vulnerable categories (immunolo-gically compromised people (those undergoing cancer treatment etc), pregnant women and people interacting with health service on a daily basis in relation to repeat prescriptions will also be uppermost among the priorities.

Travel restrictions and self-isolation when arriving from identified at risk countries made a lot of sense when the Government introduced emergency regulations some weeks ago. However, the reality now is that as the virus has spread to Europe the number of cases in many European countries (where there are no travel restrictions) have far surpassed the number of cases in some of the Asian countries where there are restrictions.

 

12-03-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR