Over the coming days, many of us will be meeting up with loved ones to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s.

It will be a different kind of Christmas this year, with activities restricted to gatherings at homes and at restaurants. There will be no mass activities in Valletta, no open-air music concerts. Instead, many of us will be attending Christmas and New Year’s Day lunches with family and friends, and Christmas and New Year’s Eve outings will likely be on the same lines.

There is a reason why this year’s holidays are so restricted – a reason we should not and cannot forget.

Mass activities have been banned and bars have been closed in order to stop, or at least control the spread of Covid-19. While all of us deserve to have fun and meet up with loved ones over the holiday period, we must be careful not to undo all the efforts and sacrifice made over the past 10 months.

We are now just days away from a Covid-19 vaccine, which promises to slowly start taking us back to normality. But the vaccine will not solve all our problems overnight. It will take months to vaccinate the entire population and, until then, we must remain vigilant.

So this Christmas, let us think about all those who are still vulnerable to the virus, about all the lives that can be lost if we stray away from the path we have been following all these months.

Let us think about the medical front liners, who have practically sacrificed a precious year of their lives to keep us safe and to care for over 11,000 Covid patients. These people have toiled tirelessly since the pandemic reached our shores in March, barely seeing their husbands and wives, children, mothers and fathers. They have been working face to face with the virus on a daily basis, facing risks that are much greater to those we have known.

Many of us have criticised the government for not giving them any bonuses – or any other form of recognition for their hard work. Awarding the Gieh ir-Repubblika to Professor Charmaine Gauci (who, in turn dedicated it to all front liners) will not give them back the time the precious family time they have lost. But we can do our part by ensuring that their sacrifice has not been in vain.

We need to make a collective effort to ensure that the coming days will not result in a new wave of infections. We have achieved so much together, despite the daily grumbling and the difficulty to adjust to a new way of life, but now we need to make a final push.

The finish line is on the horizon, but we are not quite there yet.

At this time of the year, we always speak about solidarity, namely when it comes to donating money to charity. As always, we should dig deep into our pockets and help out those who are having a tougher time than us – those for whom this might be the last Christmas ever.

But we also need to practice another form of solidarity with the community by remaining vigilant and not forgetting for a second that Covid-19 is still among us.

So yes, let us celebrate with loved ones, but let us not overdo it. Let us continue practicing social distancing, avoid unnecessary mixing between different households and stick to basic hygiene principles. We have been wearing masks for so long now that they have become a normal part of life, so there is nothing wrong in keeping the masks on while we’re opening our Christmas presents or while taking that special family photo.

Let us keep in mind that, in a few days’ time, schools will reopen and those of us lucky to be on leave during this time will be returning to their workplace. Let’s not take any unwanted ‘guests’ with us.

We do not need to make any additional sacrifices. What we need is to keep doing what we have been doing for many months now, for just a little bit longer.

If we don’t do this, some of us might not get to see Christmas 2021. It is up to each and every one of us to keep this from happening.