The last of the party political broadcasts

A remarkable achievement for which I thank all the men and women in our front line agencies, the Public Health Gibraltar Staff, the GHA and our law enforcement agencies.

It is against that backdrop that the Cabinet met this morning. In consideration of these figures that were put before us, the Cabinet agreed unanimously to move forward into PHASE 2 of the process of unlocking.

I want to tell you more about what that means for the next fourteen days.

First of all, as from 00.00hrs on Friday morning, the Cabinet has agreed that the regulations which provide restrictions on the freedom of movement of persons of all ages will NOT be renewed.

The lockdown regulations expire at midnight this coming Thursday, that means that as from Friday the 22nd May they will no longer operate.

Until then, all the restrictions continue to apply.

STAY AT HOME!

Thereafter, it will continue to be our advice that you should STAY AT HOME, but it will not be the law that you must stay at home.

We are moving from rules restricting mobility that are compulsory to rules of social distancing which are advisory.

We are working to see how additional aspects of the unlocking can be undertaken safely during this period and in line with the current lockdown regulations.

We will today publish an amendment to the Regulations that relate to businesses to enable gyms and personal trainers to resume business.

DIFFERENT WAY

But – for now at least - the operation of gyms must be done in a different way, and in accordance to public health advice and its permissions, to ensure safety.

For the time being, gymnasiums and trainers may only operate indoors if they are in possession of a permit from the Director of Public Health.

The Director of Public Health will also today publish guidelines for gymnasiums and personal trainers to assist them in such applications and applicants will be required to submit an outline of what protocols will be put in place in order to comply with the guidelines.

Applications will be considered and permits will only be granted where the Director of Public Health is satisfied that the risk of infection has been minimized.

In addition, gymnasiums and trainers will be required to keep a daily list of all the people who have attended their premises, for the safety of their members.

The purpose of this is, so that in the event of someone who has attended the gym tests positive for COVID-19, the information of who may have come into contact with them at the gym can be easily obtained.

The information will of course be subject to very strict data protection safeguards and can only be shared for contact tracing purposes in the event of a positive case at a gym, when gyms will only be required to keep the daily information for this purpose for a maximum of 10 days.

Equally, for data protections purposes, the establishment will only be informed that someone who has attended has tested positive and the identity of the individual will not be revealed.

Public transport will now also start to return slowly. As it does, we will be updating advice on routes and frequency.

We are looking to finalise public health advice on this.

MASKS ON THE BUSES

At the moment we believe we will be requiring the compulsory use of face coverings or masks on public transport.

We will initially be providing the masks from the time that these are required. Again, this may change as the prevalence of the virus in our community changes.

Public transport will be a hugely important part of how we reduce pollution going forward as we progress the closure of Line Wall Road and the introduction of more parking fees to persuade people to stay out of their cars.

We will only be a better city at the end of this process as a result.

19-05-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR