Health chief Charmaine Gauci on Friday played down concerns expressed by another senior health official, who said that parents, students and teachers should stop all extracurricular socialising if the reopening schools is to be a success.

The important thing, Gauci said, is that a strong emphasis is placed on mitigation measures.

Speaking to Times of Malta, the head of the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Unit, Tanya Melillo, said social life should be reduced to “jobs and grocery shopping”.

“If we want our children to go to school – and rightly so – we cannot expect to send them to after-school activities like drama, dance and catechism,” Mellilo said in an interview with the newspaper.

“We should go to work and straight home – no gym, no coffees and no mixing! If parents expose themselves, they are exposing their children.”

People in the industry who spoke to The Malta Independent expressed their surprise at Melillo’s comments, adding that the protocols were drafted together with the Public Health Department.

The guidelines, which can be found here, list the measures taken at music, dance, fine arts and drama studios.

Asked about Melillo’s comment during her weekly briefing on Friday, Gauci confirmed that the protocols for these schools had been drawn up with the health authorities.

“We always try to mitigate the risk. We can never bring it down to zero. The more mitigation measures you take, the lower the risk. The best thing is to place emphasis on these mitigation measures,” she said.  

“We need to ensure that we do not deny our children the education they need but safeguard their health at the same time.”