The small British territory of Gibraltar has finished administering coronavirus vaccines to all adults who want one, British health secretary Matt Hancock announced Thursday.
While Gibraltar’s density made it especially vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus, it also meant that there were few logistical hurdles involved in distributing vaccine doses. And its small size may have also 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 on the Rock now for a couple of months, without having stepped foot on Spain. That’s a big part of our lives: going across the border, visiting new cities each weekend. That’s what I’m looking forward to most,” Christian Segovia, a 24-year-old in Gibraltar, told the Associated Press this month.
Thanks to “Operation Freedom,” as Gibraltar’s vaccination program was nicknamed, many aspects of life there have already returned to normal. Schools have reopened, as have bars and coffee shops, and soccer matches are back on. A World Cup qualifier against the Netherlands is scheduled to take place at the end of March, with the stadium filled to 50 percent capacity, according to the AP.
Jutting off 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 self-governing territory. Its unusual geography makes it strategically valuable to Britain — and the ongoing feud with Spain has complicated Brexit negotiations.
As far as the coronavirus vaccine rollout is concerned, however, Gibraltar has benefited from being British territory. Britain is currently outpacing most of the world, and more than 37 percent of its population has received an initial shot. By contrast, less than 9 percent of Spain’s population is partially vaccinated.
Though Hancock described Gibraltar as “the first nation in the world to complete its entire adult vaccination program,” that isn’t completely true: The even-smaller Vatican City claims that title.
Some residents of Gibraltar worry that they may face resentment from their fellow British citizens who live Britain and have not yet been able to get vaccinated. Speaking to Politico E.U. this month, Gibraltar health minister Samantha Sacramento emphasized that the vaccine doses required to cover Gibraltar’s population were just a “small drop” in the scheme of Britain’s massive vaccination program.
“I wouldn’t like to see this as a competition between each other,” she said.
This report has been updated.

