COVID-19 pandemic in Gibraltar


The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have spread to the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar in March 2020. there are 176 confirmed cases, 176 recoveries, and no deaths.

Background

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. From 19 March, Public Health England no longer classified COVID-19 as a "High consequence infectious disease".

Timeline

March 2020

On 4 March, the first case was confirmed. The infected was a person who had travelled from Northern Italy via Málaga Airport. The patient was in self-isolation. On 7 March, the patient was tested negative and was allowed to end the self-isolation. At this point, in Gibraltar a further 63 persons were in self-isolation.
Total social lockdown began on 24 March, with certain exceptions for essential workers and businesses, over 70's having already entered lockdown.
One of the positive cases was a member of the staff of the Elderly Residential Services at Mount Alvernia.
At the end of March a Florence Nightingale Field Hospital with 192 beds was completed on the Europa Point Sports Complex.

April 2020

General lockdown extended to 22 May, Gibraltar having on 23 April 4 active cases with 129 people having recovered. Over 2,000 tests having been carried out.

May 2020

On 9 May the border with Spain was opened to Spanish residents who held non-essential employment contracts in Gibraltar to allow them to return to work. Many businesses in Gibraltar having been allowed to reopen from 4 May.
By 14 May, 147 cases were registered but with 144 recovered and no deaths.

June 2020

As of 1 June there were 12 active cases in Gibraltar with a further 7 cross border workers living in Spain also testing positive. 7,644 swabs had been undertaken, those confirmed positive were 170, with 19 active and 151 recovered. As of 22 June there were no active cases, 176 cases had recovered and 11,129 tests had been carried out. An active case was located on 27 June.