John Culatto
COVID-19 active cases in Gibraltar have gone down to just 49 today after the success of the Pfizer vaccine rollout.
The British territory has one of the highest proportions of COVID-19 inoculation in the world and its effects have never been clearer.
Active cases have now dropped to just 44 with only 11 people in hospital today.
There are still five people in the Critical Care Unit and six in Victoria Ward, most probably from the last lethal wave of the virus.
Some of the most serious cases have continued to perish over the last few days, sadly bringing the number of fatalities to 87.
A 90 to 95-year-old woman died of advanced dementia with the coronavirus and an octogenarian succumbed to COVID-19 pneumonia on the weekend.
These latest losses followed that of another nursing home victim of 85 to 90-years-old who died of bilateral bronchopneumonia caused by the virus.
Vaccine rollout
Despite the major hit to Elderly Residential Services, another active case was recorded at the nursing home today.
This has occurred despite most of the patients and staff having received the Pfizer vaccine, which is 95% effective.
A total of 16,261 first doses of the jab have been administered, with 10,772 having received the second dose too.
This means that over 27,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been distributed so far, with another cargo load due soon from the UK.
Large-scale tests of the population and cross-frontier workers continue to be carried out, with over 176,000 done to date.
The social lockdown was lifted on February 1 and the elderly were allowed to leave their homes on Monday
The 10pm to 6am curfew on the Rock will, however, continue until March 1 at which point bars, restaurants and cafes could be allowed to re-open.
Active cases have also gone down in other Campo towns like La Linea and San Roque, although Algeciras still has quite a high number.
