An attempt to abuse measures, which we will not tolerate, says Picardo

Then, I am going to address matters related to those statistics and how we are seeing them develop in our community.

I am then going to tell you about matters relating to our business and employees scheme the BEAT COVID Measures as well as identifying issues, which we see arising in that respect.

And this morning after a meeting of the Cabinet we reached certain conclusions that I want to make you aware of.

I will also end my first part of my intervention this afternoon with a reference to the affliction of the Prime Minister in the the United Kingdom and the remarks made yesterday night by Her Majesty the Queen.

STATISTICS

The test data as at 8.30 this morning is as follows:

I am giving you the grand total first.

This includes the random test samples.

Total swabs (including random) 1387

Results pending 355

Results received amount to 1032

Covid-19 positive confirmed 109

Active 57

Recovered 52

In terms of the random sample alone, the updated numbers are as follows:

Random swabs taken 391 Random swabs pending 207

Random swabs received 184

Positive 4

So generally, of the now active cases, which are 57:

49 are at home.

There are 3 cases are in ERS.

And there 3 cases are in John Ward.

There are 2 cases with confirmed COVID-19 in the COVID ICU at the moment.

Importantly, you can see from the ongoing results in respect of the random test that we are carrying out, that the rate of infection in our community in a random sample at the moment, is at about 2% of those that have been returned.

I expect that this week we will be able to share with you more information, perhaps in graphic form, of how the virus has spread and what we think the ‘curve’ may now look like for Gibraltar.

The initial predictions we had were based on data from outside of Gibraltar with no preventative action on Government’s part.

Current predictions now have the benefit of our own data and follow a number of measures such as the lockdown of over 70s, the restaurant lockdown and subsequently, the general social lockdown.

MORE ACCURATE PREDICTIONS

So we are now in a better position to have more accurate predictions.

There is also a real suggestion that our measures are working.

The previous predictions were that by 5th April, we would have had 592 cases instead of 109 cases that I have been able to report to you this afternoon.

So, this is the difference that our legally enforced changes in public behaviour are making and have made.

BEAT COVID

Turning now to our BEAT COVID-19 Measures, I can tell you that the legislation we are working on should be ready in the course of the next couple of days.

This has been a huge exercise on which many branches of Government have cooperated and, indeed, the Government has cooperated closely, with the Official Opposition.

In fact, I want to thank the Office of the Commissioner of Income Tax and the Director of Employment and the Financial Secretary for the work that they have been doing over the weekend on the detail of the many thousands of applications that we have received.

MORE IN PANORAMA PRINT EDITION.

07-04-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR