Vaccine skeptics are currently looking to Gibraltar. Because the numbers from the British exclave in southern Spain seem to confirm what some people have always suspected: that the vaccination against Covid-19 is no good. Gibraltar has been reporting a fantastic vaccination rate of 100 percent for months, and on April 8, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo declared the peninsula to be “Covid-free”. On that day, there were no more active cases of infection among the locals for the first time. But recently the incidence there has reached gigantic heights with more than 600 infections within seven days per 100,000 inhabitants. Such high numbers are currently not even to be found in Great Britain, Spain and the Netherlands, where with significantly lower vaccination rates around 50 percent there are also massive waves of new infections.
But the view of Gibraltar need not worry those who have been vaccinated. On closer analysis, he in no way confirms that the vaccination does not protect. Because in Gibraltar the actual vaccination rate is not 100 percent, but significantly lower. About 34,000 people live in the British exclave. According to the authorities, a good 78,400 doses of vaccine were administered there, especially those from Biontech, which, given two doses per vaccinee, would even correspond to a calculated vaccination rate of 115 percent of the total population and an even more breathtaking vaccination rate for the vaccinable population aged twelve and over.
Most recently, a person over 100 years of age and without vaccination protection was among the newly infected
The reason for these bizarre numbers: In fact, it was by no means only the own population on Gibraltar who were supplied with the almost 80,000 inoculated cans. At least 8,000 Spanish commuters who come to work on the peninsula every day have also been vaccinated. The government had already decided to take this step in March – according to the authorities, also because at that time the vaccination of the locals was about to be completed. However, the current statistics show that there are still gaps in the vaccination protection of Gibraltarians. Gibraltar reported a total of 18 new infections this Sunday, ten of which were completely vaccinated people of all age groups. The eight unvaccinated infected people also belonged to different age groups, on Saturday there was also an unvaccinated person between the ages of 100 and 105 years among the newly infected.
When the Chief Minister declared Gibraltar Covid-free at the beginning of April, 94 deaths in connection with a corona infection had been registered. The number of Covid deaths has not increased since then. But that of the active cases: Gibraltar currently has 281 active infections with Sars-CoV-2. This affects 254 locals and 27 visitors. But because of the still high vaccination rate (also minus the Spanish commuters), the number of severe courses is low. Nine of the infected people are being treated in the hospital, one of them in the intensive care unit. Almost all infections can be traced back to the delta variant of the virus.