Tuesday, March 24, 2020 - 09:53 Leo Olivero

“And it Came to Pass” - The Lockdown of Gibraltar Couldn’t Come Fast Enough!

In my Coronavirus related reports, I have tried to strike a balance between the need for decisive action by the government and those health professionals advising them and the management of the economic and social consequences of the response. It’s not been easy, as this unknown territory for all us!

It’s a balance, that meant cautiously supported decisions by the government to keep schools open, while allowing shops and restaurants to operate with social distancing rules in place; while also very gradually tightening up things at the border with Spain. But even then, there were obvious levels of social irresponsible behaviour by many people. Those, that were not paying attention or listening to anything the mass media were reporting on the global health crises. People, who simply could not give a monkey’s. Where in the early stages of official advice, we saw large congregations of people in cafes, restaurant or shopping, even on the beaches, they were simply not heeding the stark advice!

The slow, targeted and deliberate ‘’scale-up’’ approach to social distancing measures was simply not getting through to large numbers of the population. The images, of hordes of people, ignoring what was happening elsewhere in the world, was in contrast, with many others who were still living a period of normality. All this, was worrying to the many others, who by this stage, had taken notice of the potential social scenarios awaiting the community!

And it Came to Pass

The Bible has many short, easy-to-remember phrases full of insight and (spiritual) advice sprinkled throughout the Bible “And It Came to Pass.” Really meaning “and then this happened.” Is one of them, and it did come to pass: