The prospect of Covid-19 does not seem to have been enough to keep the Friday night crowds away from Paceville.

Pictures taken by The Malta Independent at around 00:30 early on Saturday morning show how a significant number of party-goers seemed unphased by the increase in Covid-19 and by recommendations from health authorities to avoid crowded places.

While the entertainment hub did not seem to be as bustling as it usually is, long queues could still be seen outside Paceville’s most popular clubbing venues – although at first glance it seemed like the clubs themselves were restricting the number of people who could enter the venue.

A legal notice from earlier this week expanded capacity restrictions from mass events to nightclubs and discotheques as well.

This means that clubbing venues are restricted to how many people they can allow inside, with the capacity being pegged to the size of the venue with a maximum cap of 100 people.

The biggest cluster of cases in recent weeks have been traced back to various establishments in the entertainment, with this cluster numbering 58 cases of Friday afternoon.

There are no legal restrictions on a group of people congregating spontaneously in such a manner, even though the vast majority of those there were not wearing masks or, evidently, not following any form of social distancing.