TG WARNS AGAINST TAKING UNNECESSARY RISKS WITH TEACHERS AND THE RETURN TO SCHOOLS

Everyone in Gibraltar has been profoundly shocked by the ravages of the second wave of the coronavirus. The suffering and loss of life have been tremendous. Our contagion and fatality rates have topped world rankings, and the heroic GHA have been, and continue to be, enormously strained by the dramatic increase in hospitalisations. 

When the time comes to analyse how Gibraltar went from miracle to mirage, we will have to evaluate the response from our Government and Public Health authorities in depth. For Together Gibraltar, the story will be one of unnecessary risks.

TG asks Government to please put aside this penchant for lax measures and risk taking from now on. There is no reason why, after having gone through months of difficult restrictions, and on the eve of achieving immunity from vaccines, we should actively endanger a single more life.

The party is very concerned by the prospect of reopening schools on the 1st of February as announced by Government. This opening would (particularly) expose teachers, who would still not have received adequate protection from the vaccines administered to them last week.

More and more research is coming in about the result of vaccine drives, particularly from Israel, the most advanced country in this regard. A study from the Sheba Medical centre in Tel Aviv found that “a week before receiving the second jab only 50% of those examined had levels of antibodies considered sufficient for protection”, whereas a week after the second vaccination, “over 98% presented a much higher level of antibodies than required to be considered immune.” Most recent research points in this same direction.

For Gibraltar, this would mean keeping schools closed for an extra two weeks and reopening after midterm, a price the party believes is right to pay for the adequate protection of our teachers, and in turn the rate of community spread, to avoid further casualties as well as more disruptions to education in the long run.

Together Gibraltar therefore pleads with Government to seriously reconsider their plans and always apply the precautionary principle moving forward.