Elderly people from Gibraltar residences and workers while being vaccinated at the start of the campaign in El Peñón
The biggest side effect that Antonio Sánchez experienced after being vaccinated against COVID was on his mental health: “I didn't even notice it, the flu was worse.
What I felt the most was the tranquility ”.
The Algecirean and caregiver in a Gibraltar juvenile center is not used to seeing the streets of the Rock, which used to be brimming with consumer bustle, as if they were "the setting of an apocalyptic movie.
Although it may not seem like it due to the strict confinement to which the Rock is subjected, that hope with which Sánchez now lives his day to day life is increasingly close to being the majority.
After overcoming the barrier of 38% of its 33,718 vaccinated inhabitants, Gibraltar is positioned as one of the most advanced territories in the world in the immunization process.
The apparent miracle has little of the supernatural and much of management in a territory in which its small population makes possible rapid advances in vaccination.
And that the immunization began late with respect to schedule.
Although the United Kingdom, in charge of supplying the doses, started its state operation on December 8, it was not until January 10 that the vials of Pfizer BioNTech arrived in the city.
Almost three weeks later, there are already 12,866 people - as of this past Sunday - with the first dose, practically all corresponding to the "most vulnerable" priority population group, as explained by Professor Ian Cumming, responsible for Health for the Territories Overseas Department of the NHS, the British National Health Service.
Just one day after the official start of immunizations in the Rock, Antonio Sánchez received his puncture.
The Algecireño, like the rest of the employees of the Residential Services for the Elderly (ERS), the Social Services Agency (Care Agency) and their subcontractors, was among the first along with residents of these centers and older than 80 years.
He was so shocked at the moment that Sánchez barely had time to find out how to notify the Spanish public health that he is already partially protected.
“On my shift they vaccinated more than ten people.
My arm hurt for a couple of days and nothing more.
They gave me a certificate that I received the first dose and now they have told me that, shortly, they will give me the second.
There I will ask how to do it ”, details the worker.
This same Friday Gibraltar has concluded the administration of the first dose to its first population group of vulnerable people.
That included elderly residents, employees of these social resources such as Sánchez, people over 60, front-line health personnel and people "with underlying health problems," as indicated by the Government of the Rock.
In total, 12,800 people who, starting next week, will start receiving the second dose.
"These are our people most at risk, the most vulnerable," Cumming justifies to written questions formulated by EL PAÍS.
The strategy differs slightly from what was announced by the English NHS which, on January 11, already communicated its decision to delay the second dose in all cases until 12 weeks,
according to Rafa de Miguel
.
With the doses that are arriving periodically by air link from the United Kingdom - all of them, for now, from the Pfizer vaccine - Gibraltar is going to work in the coming weeks in the task of giving the second puncture to its first group, to Those who will call again by appointment in continuous vaccination hours from 8:00 to 17:00.
When they are done with that task, immunization will continue to the next group, including 16-60 year olds and cross-border workers, even though they live across the border.
Cumming is cautious and does not want to talk about completion dates that will depend on the British supply.
For now, he only dares to assess that when the 70% of vaccinated necessary for the so-called herd immunity arrives "it will be a time of rest".
The appreciation is not less if one takes into account that the Rock has experienced in these weeks the worst face of the covid since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Gibraltarian Government decreed a total confinement of the city on January 2 before a disturbing increase in infections that reached its peak on January 8 with 1,317 active cases in a population of just 33,718 inhabitants.
By then, the UK had already confirmed cases of the British strain on the Rock.
The high incidence in the British city was added days later that of the neighboring towns of Campo de Gibraltar and, especially, La Línea de la Concepción, where a good part of the 15,000 cross-border employees reside (10,000 of them, Spanish) and where the Last week a rate of 2,550 cases per 100,000 inhabitants was reached, before starting to decline.
Although the total confinement of Gibraltar continues, just a few days after starting the vaccination campaign, the curve in the city began its de-escalation.
Along the way, 77 neighbors have lost their lives (69 due to coronavirus and the rest with the disease, according to official statistics).
Today the Rock, with 282 active cases, registers daily decreases in this number.
However, for Cumming it is still "too early to see yet" relationship between the decline and the increasing percentage of vaccinated, since immunity takes weeks to build.
Antonio Sánchez is worth it with the mere tranquility of knowing that the end of the pandemic that has disrupted his day to day is getting closer and closer.
“From the first hour I opted for the vaccine and the events in Spain prove me right.
If so many people are skipping the process, it will be for something ”, the worker ditches with irony.
Information about the coronavirus
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