Thursday, April 2, 2020 - 10:37 Dr Joseph Garcia

by Dr Joseph Garcia Deputy Chief Minister

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Good afternoon and welcome. This 4pm press conference is part of our public information strategy on COVID-19. It is designed to keep you informed and updated. And we will once again repeat our public health advice. My colleague the Minister for Civil Contingencies Samantha Sacramento will expend on what your Government is doing to protect you. She will give you details of the new field hospital at the Europa Sports Complex. This is now ready to receive patients. Act to keep the numbers down. Act on the advice that we give you. The core message remains the same. Stay at home, stay alive.

DAILY STATISTICS

In keeping with the format of these press conferences, I will start with an update from A&E last night and with the latest statistics. Remember that anyone with the symptoms of COVID-19 should call 111 first. In the last 24 hours nobody with COVID-19 symptoms attended A&E. All patients were treated as clean. There were two admissions to the clean non-COVID ICU and one to Victoria Ward during the day. And no admissions overnight. The test data as at 8.30 this morning is as follows:

Total swabs 770

Results pending 211

Results received 559

Confirmed cases 81

Recovered cases 34

Active cases 47

We are now also providing the data as to where the active cases are.

I said there are now 47 active cases. 45 of them are at home. And there are 2 cases in John Ward. This is now our COVID ward. There is therefore nobody with confirmed COVID-19 in ICU at the moment.

TEST NUMBERS AND LEVELS

As you know, our first case of COVID-19 was confirmed at the beginning of March. We now have a total of 81 confirmed cases. 34 have recovered. There are today, as I said, 47 active cases. The more testing that we do the more cases that we will identify. A total of 770 swabs have been taken so far. This represents about 2.4% of the population. Bear in mind that a few people may have been tested more than once. Notwithstanding that, a sample of our size would require the testing of 1.2 million people in the United Kingdom. The latest test data I have seen is that UK have tested134,916. Therefore number of tests in Gibraltar 770 might sound low. But in proportional terms it is actually high, when compared to the size of our population. A further sample of 400 people are now being tested separately by invitation. This will provide an indicator of the prevalence of COVID-19 in our country.

STAY AT HOME

The tests show that the number of cases locally continues to increase. Thankfully the uptrend is happening slowly at the moment. We have to keep it that way. We need to ensure that hospital admissions do not spike. You can see what has happened in other countries. Hospitals have been overwhelmed. Intensive care facilities are full. Patients wait in corridors. Sometimes on the floor. Many thousands have died. In Spain an ice rink has been converted into a morgue. We do not want to see those distressing scenes repeated here. We need to keep the rate of increase down. This is the only way in which the GHA will be able to cope. And there is one easy way to keep the numbers down. Stay at home. Listen to our advice. Help our healthcare workers. Do not go out unless you really have to. That is the object of a lockdown. If you stay at home you will slow the spread.

OVER 70s

If you are over 70 you are most at risk. You should not go out at all. Get your family, friends or neighbours to help you. If there is nobody who can help you then call 20041818. They will organise the delivery of shopping or medication. Indeed, over 110 such requests have already been processed. The calls are taken by the call centre at Bayside. The physical distribution is from the base of operations at the Gibraltar Training Centre. Morrisons and Eroski have introduced special hours for the elderly. If you are over 70, Gibmaroc, Risso’s Daily, Coviran and Ramsons have introduced home deliveries. They will take orders by telephone. But when you receive deliveries from anyone please take care. Do not have any contact. Ask that your groceries are left on the doorstep. Remove or wash all outer packaging before putting it away. Throw away the bags. Clean and disinfect any surfaces that the items touched. Then wash your hands for 20 seconds as soon as you finish. It is important that you take special care. The virus will attack everyone. But If you are over 70 then you are most at risk. To stay safe, stay at home.

GIBRALTARIANS ABROAD

I will say a few words about Gibraltarians abroad. Easyjet has now grounded all its planes. The Government are in discussions with British Airways. There were only ten passengers on the BA flight that came in yesterday. Only thirteen on the return leg back to Heathrow. Passengers are advised to always check with the airline. The group of seven Gibraltarians in London over the weekend are now back in Gibraltar. The largest single group of eleven are now in Morocco. Sadly, they have been caught by the lockdown. There are no sea or air links with Morocco. There are three in Australia. These are in touch with the British Embassy. And are now in accommodation and on the Embassy list. Again, there are no flights back to the UK. There are two more in Goa, India now in safe accommodation. The first obstacle to their return is the lack of air connections. The group of four in the United States is now down to one person. Some have made their way to London. Five in total are expected to return home from Heathrow on Friday. The total number awaiting return to Gibraltar is now twenty-two persons.