The Medical Association of Malta and the Association of Public Health Medicine said they are seriously concerned about the current situation and have written confidentially to the superintendent of public health requesting more measures to bring numbers down.
14-day average daily new cases are still 2nd highest in Europe – Tourism hardest hit
At 46 cases per day Malta now has the second highest rate of new cases (14-day average) in the entire EU. As a result, at least 16 EU countries have introduced travel restrictions to/from Malta, and arrivals have decreased significantly, with serious and long term sustained economic consequences on the tourism sector. Measures have to be taken to bring this number to under 10/day as soon as possible.
Health care services are coping however spread is increasing amongst the vulnerable
Despite the daily number of new cases, the health care services are still coping, with only one additional death in this second peak and a limited number of hospital admissions. Inevitably, as numbers increase amongst vulnerable patients, the risk of avoidable deaths increases. Furthermore 10% of patients admitted to Mater Dei may need many months to recover their normal health status. Every effort should be made to keep numbers manageable by the health services.
Strategic Goals
A choice exists between continuing with the current measures which may or may not reduce the numbers slowly, and introducing further measures to decrease the number of daily cases at a faster rate. Should Malta manage to decrease the number of new cases back to June levels, this would reap both public health and economic benefits.
Malta needs to bring the numbers down rapidly to reopen its ports and support the tourism sector, but it must also regain the confidence of foreign governments to reverse travel restrictions. Furthermore, Malta can only promote itself as a safe island for tourists once it is indeed safe by epidemiological standards.
1. Further restrictive measures are necessary, However these are left to be decided by the superintendent of public health. Wherever they are introduced financial compensation to businesses and support of affected employees must be continued.
2. Make boarding a plane/ship inbound to Malta only after a valid test (PCR) performed 72 hours prior to departure from ALL countries, including Maltese nationals returning from abroad until a vaccine is found. Anyone who still enters Malta without a valid test should be swabbed on arrival at their own cost, and only allowed to enter Malta once the test is performed. Random testing of a few incoming passengers from ‘AMBER’ regions has already uncovered 3 positive cases. This is a high rate, and there could be many more whom we would have missed since testing is random. Increasing the testing capacity is essential. Imported cases must be reduced to zero.
3. The expiry date for Vouchers should be extended until the end of December. Vouchers were made to kickstart the economy however by encouraging people to move out of their homes they are kickstarting the epidemic rendering them counterproductive to the economy.
