Thought of the Day - January 27 - Gibraltar

While Belgium has been cited as having highest number of official deaths per capita from COVID-19 in the world ( Thought of the Day - November 27 - Human Rights in Belgium ) this is not entirely true. They "take the cake" for countries over one-million souls, but with a much smaller population the highest death rate is actually Gibraltar, with 20% more.

At the moment the variant(s) that laid waste to the UK through year-end are now rapidly increasing case rates in Spain and Portugal - bucking the trend in Europe and North America as their second wave abates. Right now Portugal has the highest number of official new cases per capita.

I decided to look a little deeper. I expected to see talk of travel restrictions and curfews but guess what I did find in the headlines from Gibraltar over the last week? Celebrations are going on in southern Spain and Gibraltar. It seems the border between Spain and Gibraltar, which has seen a variety of restrictions since 1969, has finally been thrown open. Gibraltar is now accepted into the European Schengen zone. Meaning, while people sporting with UK passports still have to go through border controls, folk from Spain can now travel freely into Gibraltar.

Wow, what bad timing for the 33-thousand inhabitants of the rock. Guess what? Instead of following the EU/UK trend, Gibraltar's current new case rate is now rivaling that of Portugal!

Cheers

Cliff