Clubs and bars have been closed for a few weeks now in a bid to control the spread of Covid-19. They will remain shut all through the Christmas season, with the owners hoping that they will be allowed to open their doors again in early 2021.

They seem to have been singled out by the health authorities and the government as being the main source of contagion. Other places where people gather, including restaurants, shopping malls and other outlets have remained open. One cannot really blame the owners of such outlets to complain that in the past few weeks they have been the only victims of the pandemic. It’s as if, they argue, the government has chosen them to appear to be doing something to control the spread of the virus.

Still, whether this has succeeded in containing the spread remains uncertain. We’re told that the R-factor is below one, which is a good sign, but each and every day we are still getting big numbers in terms of new cases, and there has not been such a big change in the number of active cases present. A few weeks ago they climbed to over 2,000; now they’re still more than 1,700.

The closure of clubs and bars was the last directive to be issued by the government with regard to the pandemic. And there is no indication that any more measures will be announced anytime soon.

Other countries, like us, are approaching the Christmas period and they are scrambling to issue restrictions in a bid to reduce contagion. Some countries, such as Germany and The Netherlands, have ordered a lockdown while others, such as Italy, have issued limitations regarding Christmas gatherings. Christmas lunches are restricted to six people in Italy, just to give one example.

Here, in Malta, nothing of the sort has taken place. No lockdown is being advocated, but there should be stronger restrictions in place, and not just recommendations and guidelines which health chief Charmaine Gauci painstakingly explains every Friday. Other countries have issued them because they fear a third wave of the virus in January unless restrictions are imposed.

Here, in Malta, it seems that we are not giving this too much attention; we’re just hoping and praying that all goes well. We appear to be too optimistic that once the vaccination programme starts, Covid-19 will be wiped away in a few days. It will not be so.

The authorities are still in time to issue stricter directives for Christmas and New Year. For example, it is an open secret that, with the closure of clubs, many are planning to organise parties in villas they have rented out in both Malta and Gozo.

Such gatherings may not be as massive as ones that were organised in clubs in the past years, but they will still bring together people from different bubbles, with the risk that one single sick person can infect many others. This, as we all know, happened in summer when a party was held in a hotel and band marches associated with village feasts were held.

And it could happen again now.