The newly implemented bar curfew seems to have had the effect of moving crowds to public areas such as St. George’s Bay in St. Julian’s.

Pictures uploaded on social media and shared extensively show significant crowding on the beach on Friday night, which is right next to entertainment hotspot Paceville.

Bars must shut their doors at 11pm under new restrictions announced last week in an effort to curb the high number of Covid-19 cases which Malta has been experiencing in the past weeks.

Malta currently has a record high 1,770 active cases of Covid-19.

The pictures show a beach crowded with revellers – with very few wearing face-masks, and even fewer wearing them correctly.

This too is against the law, after a legal notice was implemented last week stipulating that face masks must be worn at all times outside.

The images sparked anger across social media, with many lamenting the selfishness of those gathered and the lack of enforcement to not disperse the crowd.

St. Julian’s mayor Albert Buttigieg himself wrote that it is “an insult to all our elderly people locked inside, to parents who are doing their utmost to protect their children and to students /workers who have to wear face masks all day!”

He lambasted those gathered as selfish and irresponsible.

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri posted later in the morning that he was angered to the death by the crowds which gathered at St. George's Bay.

He said that he was informed that the police dispersed the crowd in little time afterwards.

He added that yesterday hundreds of inspections were carried out around the country, and many fines were handed out for Covid-19 related reasons.