The Malta Entertainment Industry & Arts Association (MEIA) said today it welcomed the new regulations announced by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Superintendent of Health.

This endorsement stems from the fact that most of these measures reflect MEIA’s recommendations. MEIA will support recommendations by the Superintendent of Public Health that may require halting all mass gatherings when necessary.

To this effect, MEIA would like to hold an urgent discussion with all the respective authorities to propose a pragmatic approach as we also fear different messages might be given out to our industry which create further uncertainty. A tiered risk assessment structure distinguishing between low risk to high risk mass gatherings is also recommended by MEIA.

This will help both the health community as well as our industry react better to the pandemic which seems to be an unfortunate reality we all have to with for a while. MEIA also welcomes recent news reported that festivals with inbound travellers are to be cancelled. This was also one of the suggestions out forward by the members of MEIA.

We’re not against these type of events during non-pandemic times (as long as there’s utmost transparency), but short term goals for tourism purposes could negatively impact the level of trust and confidence required from the general public to return to any type of normality. Having considered the urgency to secure public health, most of the event organisers and artists who were planning to have their event in the coming days or weeks have cancelled or postponed their event voluntarily.

Of course, this will continue to have a negative impact on the livelihood of artists, technicians and suppliers. We therefore call on Government to shift with immediate effect impacted sectors benefiting from the COVID wage supplement from Annex C to Annex A. We also urge for a comprehensive recovery plan for the entertainment industry and the arts to be announced as early as possible.

Our aim is to hold discussions with Government officials to secure the livelihood of thousands of workers earning a living from the entertainment industry and the arts. We are confident that together and in the interest of the health and wellbeing of our community we can overcome these challenging times.