It has now been six months since the first case of COVID-19 was found in Malta.
It was on 7 March – a Saturday – when the first case of the virus – a girl who had returned to Malta from Italy with her parents after a holiday – was reported. The girl’s parents tested positive soon after.
Since, Malta has had 2,039 cases, out of which 1,627 have recovered and 14 have passed away.
August was without doubt the month which saw the most cases of the virus. Indeed, over half of Malta’s cases – 1,148 to be exact – were found exclusively in that month. The month with the second most cases was April, with 296, followed by March with 170, then May with 153, July with 69, and finally June with just 52.
The 25 new cases reported on Sunday take the number of cases found in September up to 156. While the rate of new cases has dropped significantly since August, at this rate September is still likely to be the month where the second-most cases are reported.
Measures: How Malta responded to the pandemic
Compared with other countries in Europe, Malta acted very quickly with mitigation measures to close certain sectors off. Indeed, schools, universities, and childcare centres for instance were closed as of 13 March – only six days after the first case of the virus was found.
The closure of bars, restaurants, and gyms followed three days later, while the airport was slammed shut on 20 March. Nonessential retail outlets were closed as from 23 March, while group gatherings were limited to three people a week later.
The first of these measures started to be relaxed in May, with some non-essential outlets being allowed to welcome customers again on 4 May. Restaurants, hairdressers, beauty salons, and a number of health services and clinics re-opened on 22 May in the second batch of relaxation measures announced by the government.
The final set, announced on 1 June, will see the remaining establishments – including bars and gyms – allowed to open their doors again as from 5 June.
The announcement also gave a timeline for the re-opening of other things: the government’s summer school programme Skolasajf went ahead as planned on 1 July, while Malta’s airport opened for passengers from 19 countries and regions on the same day.
In a separate announcement, the Curia said that mass and religious services could resume as of 13 June. Non-contact sport competitions meanwhile returned on 5 June, while training for contact sports was allowed as from 1 July with competitions being allowed two weeks afterwards.
Mass events soon followed suit – and while there were meant to be certain social distancing measures in place, these were sparsely enforced.
This turned out to be the crux of the matter.
With cases barely being registered and the number of active cases of the virus at one point down to as low as three, a single case was registered on 23 July. It later transpired that the person had attended a weekend-long party at a hotel, and cases soon began to increase from there.
The response to the increase, in terms of measures, was far more delayed than the initial phases of the pandemic – resulting in industrial action being taken by unions representing doctors, nurses, and pharmacists respectively.
Eventually, significant action was announced on 17 August – when clubs and bars were shut down once more and mass gatherings were restricted to a maximum of 15 people.
Those measures remain in place today, even as the rate of new cases and the virus’ reproduction factor – which dipped below 1 for the first time in a month in the past week – has decreased.
The government has also remained steadfast in its decision to open schools at the end of this month, with a 35-page list of protocols being issued to facilitate this last week.
Enforcement: Around €1 million in COVID-19 related fines issued so far
Throughout the course of the last six months, the government has implemented legal notices permitting various types of fines for those who do not follow the restrictions put in place to mitigate the spread of the virus.
The first was a €100 fine for all those who breach rules on the number of people from different households who can gather in public. The maximum number of people who could gather in public was set at three on 31 March, before being bumped up to four from 4 May, and finally to six from 22 May. The restriction was removed altogether as from the beginning of June, although it was reinstated in August, with a limit of 15 people.
A fine was also imposed for those who are caught breaking mandatory quarantine. This was initially set at €1,000 on 11 March, but increased to €3,000 five days later. The fine was later increased to €10,000 for those who test positive for COVID-19 but break their isolation.
Another €3,000 fine was implemented for outlets who open without permission or carry out services which are banned as a result of the mitigation measures taken by the government.
Another fine was added to the list in August, with it becoming mandatory by law to wear a mask inside several different places and outlets. Offenders are liable to a fine of between €50 and €100 if they are caught not wearing a mask, depending on whether they admit or not.
An analysis of the government’s COVID-19 bulletins – which were published daily up until the end of May – shows that there was a total of 1,571 fines issued for breaches of public gathering laws.
In a press conference last Friday meanwhile, Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said that so far there have been 53,782 inspections on homes.
She said that the environmental health inspectors have issued 167 fines for breaching quarantine, with 27 of those being to positive cases.
She said that 36 establishments have been fined for breaking rules, whilst 113 people have been fined for not wearing masks.
This means that a total of around €1 million in COVID-19 related fines have been issued by authorities in the past six months.
Economic Effects: All eyes on October’s Budget
With most forms of activity brought to an abrupt halt by the pandemic, it is obvious that one of the greatest fallouts of the virus would be from an economic perspective.
With most businesses shut and the airport closed, most of the cash flow beyond the essentials simply dried up.
Like in all other countries, the government stepped in with measures to provide economic aid to those businesses which were worst hit. While their first aid package on 18 March – namely made up of tax deferrals and loan guarantees – was deemed to be more of a miss than a hit, schemes announced later after an agreement with all unions and constituted bodies have proven integral for many businesses.
The main scheme implemented is a wage supplement scheme which would see the government pay €800 towards the salary of full-time workers in the worst-hit industries and their employer paying another €400. There are parameters to cater for workers who work with businesses who were not affected as much, and part-time workers as well.
Over 100,000 workers have received their salary through this scheme, which will now continue to run until the Budget in October.
Also running till then is a stimulus scheme, where all Maltese residents were granted €100 in vouchers to use at outlets which were hit by the pandemic. 60% of these vouchers have been redeemed thus far, resulting in a €37 million injection into the economy.
The true economic effect of the pandemic however is only now beginning to emerge.
Recent publications by the National Statistics Office show that the government’s deficit in the first half of the year topped €1 billion, while the Central Bank has estimated that Malta’s GDP will contract by 6.6% by the end of 2020 and will not return to 2019 levels until mid-2022.
Unemployment meanwhile increased significantly – as of June, 4,270 people were marked as unemployed – over double the unemployment figure in the same month last year. There is a downward trend in this regard however, with the rate decreasing slightly since May.
From an economic perspective, all eyes are now on the upcoming Budget in October, which will continue to set out Malta’s recovery from the pandemic.