The British enclave of Gibraltar has already vaccinated its entire adult population

LONDON – The small British enclave of Gibraltar finished administering coronavirus vaccines to all adults who signed up for vaccinationUK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Thursday.

Home to around 30,000 people, the territory of the Iberian Peninsula had two key advantages in the vaccine race: its tiny size, which is less than 7 km2 in area, and un constant flow of doses of vaccines imported from Great Britain. This allowed the government to start injecting thousands of workers who live in Spain but cross the border into Gibraltar every day.

While Gibraltar’s density made it particularly vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus, it also meant that there was few logistical obstacles involved in the distribution of vaccine doses. And its small size may also have contributed to the fact that the vast majority of residents were eager to get vaccinated, making it easier to travel outside the territory for the first time in nearly a year.

“I’ve been in Rock for a few months, without having set foot in Spain. It’s a big part of our life: crossing the border, visiting new cities every weekend. This is what I look forward to the most. Said Christian Segovia, a 24-year-old from Gibraltar.

Thanks to “Operation Freedom”, as Gibraltar’s vaccination program has been called, many aspects of life there are now back to normal. Schools have reopened, as have bars and cafes and football matches. A World Cup qualifier against the Netherlands is scheduled for the end of March, with the stadium filled to 50% of capacity.

Located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean, Gibraltar is the subject of a centuries-old dispute between Britain and Spain, which claims to be the rightful owner of the Autonomous Territory. Its unusual geography makes it strategically valuable to Britain and the ongoing dispute with Spain it even complicated the Brexit negotiations.

However, regarding the launch of the coronavirus vaccines, Gibraltar took advantage of its status as a British territory. Britain currently overtakes most of the world, and more than 37% of your population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. On the contrary, less than 9% of the Spanish population is partially vaccinated.

Although Hancock described Gibraltar as “The first nation in the world to complete its comprehensive adult immunization program,” that’s not entirely true: the even smaller Vatican City claims that title.

Some Gibraltar residents fear they will face resentment from fellow British citizens who live in Britain and have not yet been able to get vaccinated. In an interview with the publication Politician, European Union, Gibraltar’s Health Minister Samantha Sacramento stressed that the vaccine doses required to cover the population of Gibraltar were only a “small drop” from Britain’s mass vaccination program.

“I wouldn’t like to see this as a competition between us”, He said.

The Washington Post

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