Correspondent Aritz Parra and photographer Bernat Armangue, both based in Madrid, and video journalist Renata Brito, Barcelona, were the first international journalists to travel to Gibraltar to find out how this British overseas territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula managed to get so far ahead of everyone else in vaccinating its population.
The AP trio Interviewed the local health minister, residents and workers commuting from neighboring Spain, showing how this quirky outpost of Britain — which just weeks earlier had been dealing with a major outbreak — is now on the verge of being fully vaccinated and is loosening COVID-19 restrictions as it prepares to regain a sense of normalcy ahead of much of the continent.
The story atttracted strong attention in Europe, particularly in Spain, where less than 4% of the population is fully vaccinated.