John Culatto
ALL events expecting more than 100 people will be cancelled or held behind closed doors to prevent Covid-19 spreading.
This means that the Gibraltar Calling music festival held at Europa Point will now be cancelled.
The Gibraltar Government said that the popular annual festival would need ‘public funds to be expended now, in advance, on signature of contracts’
“No insurance is available at reasonable cost to cover the potential loss of fees paid if the concert has to be cancelled in September,” added No.6 Convent Place.
One of the first events which will be affected will be the Drama Festival, to be held next week, with tickets already being refunded.
The Miss Gibraltar show could also be held without any live spectators as it is being televised.
The annual Calentita Food Festival will continue as planned and depending on the progress of the virus could be cancelled at short notice.
National Day and the Monkey Rocks festival on September 10 will continue to be held, with the possibility of cancellation at the last minute.
Next weekend’s televised and streamed Gibraltar Snooker Open on March 13-15 will be held with less than the 100 tickets sold so far at the event.
Two other streamed and televised events, the Darts Open and World Pool Masters to be held over the following two weekends will be held in similar ways.
The Rhythmic Gynmastics and Gaelic Football competitions were already held last weekend, but without any one from the public present.
‘Don’t panic!’
Any event participants from the Far East and Italy will need to report to the authorities on arrival.
Religious services could be restricted after the government met with leaders of the different faith groups.
Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo said all these decision were take ‘on the basis of the best advice available to the Government’.
“We are acting to seek to slow the onset of the virus in our community but conscious that the identification of an index case confirms that the virus is already in Gibraltar and it will very likely spread widely,” said Picardo.
“This should not be a cause for panic but for proper planning and for action to protect the most vulnerable in our community.
“That is what we are seeking to do, based on the advice of experts and the detailed work we have done as a government in the seven weeks to date since the virus was first identified as a potential Public Health issue.”
So far only one case has been publicly acknowledged by the government, although that person recovered and is already back at work.
The person had reportedly visited Italy but despite not reporting any symptoms was identified as a carrier of Coronavirus.
