Decisions on COVID-19 shall be held by the Health Authorities and not the Prime Minister, Opposition and Nationalist party leader Bernard Grech said in a meeting he had with Superintendent of Public Health Professor Charmaine Gauci. 

This meeting was one of a number of meetings held by the COVID action team set up by the Leader of the Opposition. 

During this meeting, Bernard Grech reiterated the PN's trust in the Superintendent of Public Health and the experts working with it and expressed regret that their work was hampered by contradictory statements made by the Prime Minister Robert Abela. 

At another meeting with the Union of Nurses and Midwives (MUMN), Grech expressed his appreciation for the relentless work which all health professionals and frontliners are putting in, particularly the ongoing challenges and the pressure this pandemic is creating to them and their families. 

The lack of human resource in the health sector and the current situation was also discussed as the number of beds in the ITU is only as important as having specialised nurses tending to it in order to manage ventilators in case of need. 

Grech said that the PM's position is that Malta urgently needs responsible leadership and a clear strategy of what is being done to control this move. Later today this action team will be meeting with the Malta Medical Association (MAM) so that the situation of the pandemic can be discussed further. 

The PN’s action team was set up last week as a reaction to Malta hitting the 1,000 COVID-19 active cases mark. The team is being headed by Grech himself together with PN MPs Claudio Grech, Claudette Buttigieg, Clyde Puli, Stephen Spiteri as well as Maria Deguara.