The former Labour Party Deputy Leader Joe Brincat has blasted Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli for not taking the decision to stop mass gatherings.

“Is Julia Farrugia Portelli ready to be responsible for the damages caused if everything remains open and the pandemic continues to spread?”, Brincat questioned in a post on his Facebook profile.

“Encouraging mass gatherings rather than stopping them is crazy in today’s circumstances”, he said.

He continued by saying that Italy, which now is in a better situation than Malta, had voted in parliament to elongate further their state of public health emergency.

Malta had lifted the public health emergency at the end of June, right before the country re-opened its borders to tourists.

“Are you enjoying summer, Julia? I know people from your district who are not impressed or blinded by the crowds of people”, Brincat said in one last swipe at the Tourism Minister.

Brincat served as the deputy leader of the Labour Party between 1998 and 2003, having been an MP before that. He was a government minister under Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici in the late 1980s.

The criticism comes as the pressure for the banning of mass gatherings and events continues to mount.

Both the Medical Association of Malta and the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses have threatened to take industrial action if they are not stopped by Monday, while a number of other associations – including business ones – have also called for the mass activities to be stopped.

The calls came after Covid-19 cases spiked, namely due to a weekend-long party at a hotel over a week and a half ago.  That cluster is made up of 20 cases, while another cluster of 10 cases has emerged related to the Santa Venera village feast as well.

Farrugia Portelli however has stopped short of saying that mass events will be banned, saying instead that a “balanced approach” is needed going forward.