Fredbargate

Starting next week my wife will be commencing treatment at a clinic in Spain, we live in Gibraltar.
I will be driving her to the clinic and will on occasions have to wait 3-4 hours for her treatment.
My question is during that time will I be allowed to go food shopping.
In Gibraltar being over 70 I am not allowed out of the house, the above being the only exception

chrisjolly

Hi Fred, if she cannot go by taxi and you have to drive I would definitely stay in your car. The most dangerous places to go are hospitals and nursing homes and at your age you are in the at risk category. Take a book or do your emails. If the police stop you have a letter from her doctor or the appointment. Is there anyway you could postpone the treatment for a few weeks? Good luck and stay safe.

Fredbargate

Thanks Chris
No the treatment cannot be postponed.
I will not personally be entering the clinic unless for a call of nature.
Kindle and smart phone primed.
Last week here in Gib I had to rely on others for food,.
Unfortunately what we ordered was far different to what arrived.
Very close to the clinic there are Mercadona, Dia, Carrefour Express and a Super Sol all of which I have to drive past
I will not enter anywhere that is busy.

missile

Hope the treatment goes well for your wife :-)

Fredbargate

Thanks missile

dougal03

Fred, am sure we in Spain send you & your wife our good wishes.Perhaps you could tell us a bit more about conditions in Gib. I am a bit older than you,happily quite mobile on foot still.Why can you not leave your home?Is it because of your wife's illness or your age group?Personally I cannot see why you could NOT go food shopping in Spain.So far I have not been stopped.I did see yesterday,Good Friday,that there was a Police car stationed in the middle of the main road in our town & 2 Police were stopping every car but not the very few pedestrians.Is the border still open,although I imagine there will be strict regulations if so.

Fredbargate

Hi dougal thanks for the good whishes.
In Gib all 70+ are banned from leaving their homes.
On Monday 30/3 I went out to the chemists, I was stopped by the police 100 mtrs short and told to go home being threatened with arrest if seen out again..
The prescription was eventually collected 30 hours and 2 phone calls from me and 12+ from the Care Agency later.
All efforts to buy food using the Care Agency have failed, shops supposedly doing home deliveries have failed. Eroski stopped home deliveries the day I was banned from leaving home.
A couple of friends have been shopping for me, but due to shortages and in one case age ( under 30 ) have had difficulty in getting what I have asked for.
We are not starving yet, but the ability to walk round a store and select your own requirements with choice would be paradise.

A friend in Spain reported that he was in Lidl a few days ago and the only social distancing being enforced was to protect the checkout staff, none for the customers nor any limitation on number of customers in the store althought it was faily quiet at the time.

Also there was no disinfecting taking place of trolleys or baskets nor any products for the customers to do it themselves

Compare this with UK, Tesco advert :-https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/coronavirus/video-2140342/Video-Tesco-shows-theyre-doing-enforce-social-distancing.html

There is a similar one reference Sainsbury, Gibraltar again is the same.

There are 4 supermarkets within 500 meters of the clinic and I will have about 4 hours to spare.

N.B. the video appears not to load but if you scan and copy you will get there if you have not already seen it.

Lynn R

I have heard the same about the Lidl store nearest to me, from a friend who shopped there earlier this week. The situation in Mercadona, however, is very different. I have been into both our town centre branches during the lockdown, and they have a security guard on all entrances keeping control of the number of shoppers in the store. Almost always you have to wait in a queue (and people do keep a suitable distance between them whilst queuing) before being allowed in. At the entrance there is hand sanitiser, paper towel roll which can be used to sanitise the trolleys or baskets, and plastic gloves for customer use. All staff wear masks and gloves (which I was told they weren't doing in Lidl) and screens have also been installed at checkouts to protect the staff. There are floor markings in place at the fish counter and the checkouts to ensure social distancing. and at the fish counter you have to wait for the person serving you to put your purchases in a tray before picking them up. They have stopped selling loose items from the instore bakery counters and are not operating the jamon slicing counters, nor the meat trimming ones.

bobd22

our local Lidl has a table at the entrance with gloves hand sanitizer and wipes to clean trolley handle etc. There was security at entrance as well he never said anything but it was very quiet anyway. There are distancing markers at the till, so maybe it depends on location.

Lagoo

Would you be stopped? Very unlikely. I've never been stopped and when out see the occasional over-70 walking the streets unimpeded.

Would it be safe for others? From what you say you have self-isolated for 2 weeks and so are unlikely to have anything to pass on.

Could you pick the virus up from others? This is certainly possible, it is of course highly contagious. If an infected person coughs near you, or (I once read) talks loudly near you then you're likely to be infected. There's also the risk that the virus will be on the products themselves, from infected customers 'browsing' or from staff, who appear to wear the same gloves all day. Is it worth this risk to yourself and your wife just to do some shopping?

dougal03

Fred in your situation I would take advantage of the opportunity to get your shopping.Can't believe that all over 70 in Gib.have to remain inside.All very well for younger folk to think we can get someone to help us out.What should I do?I came to a new area late Feb/early Mar.know no-one,on my own,have absolutely no family in Spain,not even had a chance to get more furniture as I discarded most that was left.However,as I said,am fortunate that I can walk about.We could think of countless objects that we handle or other ways to pass on the virus but I hope we take that into consideration & do our best knowing this.

missile

That is going a bit too far? In one county, policemen are in the aisles in Sainsburys to monitor social distancing.

Fredbargate

These are considerations I have already considered
I will not enter any establishment that is busy.
I see little or no difference in contracting from handling goods be they in a shop or delivered to my door.

Fredbargate

Hi Dougal all my friends are of a similar age and position to me whilst my relatives are scattered across the globe.

The one friend who bought me food last Sunday lives in Spain but luckily is able to cross the frontier.

Also bare in mind if I ask someone to shop for me in Gib they may have to queue for hours, I could not ask them to sacrafice so much time.
Acceptable only if they can combine it with their own shopping.

Fredbargate

Remember we are British and this is DEMOCRACY