The new measures announced on Monday are a step in the right direction, but they were introduced relatively late, MUMN President Paul Pace told The Malta Independent.

During a press conference on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne together with Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci, announced a number of new measures to contain the spread of Coronavirus.

Speaking to this newsroom, Pace said that, “the new measures are a step towards the right direction and as MUMN we hope that in approximately two to three weeks we will see a positive impact with such measures.”

“We also hope that people will carefully abide by these restrictions so that we can possibly see a decrease in Coronavirus active cases,” he said.

“It’s a pity that these new measures were introduced so late as these should have been announced with the opening of the Airport on 1 July.”

Pace explained that, “although we would still have had experienced a slight increase in Coronavirus cases with tourists visiting Malta, we would not be experiencing the big numbers we have today.”

“We had to experience high numbers in Coronavirus cases to realise that we were on the wrong path. Unfortunately, as politicians they need to see the numbers increase in order to take the necessary actions,” he said.

With regards to the nightlife in our country, Pace said that, “it was evident that these need to be cancelled. Other European countries have done this a very long time ago, and it should have served as an eye-opener for Malta to avoid high numbers in active cases.”

He said that, “cancelling mass events on their own, will not be enough to curb the new cases coming out every day. However, we sincerely hope that the new measures will be enough as if not, some form of lockdown will have to be introduced.”

Pace expressed his belief that if we were to have another lockdown it wouldn’t be the same as it was back in March, but certainly, other extreme measures will definitely need to be put in place.”

Such a decision will be re-evaluated and taken after the two/three-week period as by then one will be able to identify the impact of the new measures.