Hamrun has been in the news quite a bit recently, and for all the wrong reasons. This is mainly because a few supporters of the local football club have been ignoring Covid regulations, shedding a bad light on the club.

Over the past months we have seen multiple incidents involving breaches of very basic Covid-19 guidelines - those mainly related to social distancing and mass gatherings. Last February, footage emerged of celebrations showing fans celebrating Hamrun's win over Birkirkara. The footage showed a catering establishment that was filled with people.

This wasn't the first incident of such football celebrations in the locality. Lest we forget, in late January videos of spontaneous gatherings were reported on social media showing Ħamrun supporters celebrating and disregarding Covid-19 regulations in the streets and in a club after their team won against Valletta.

More recently, some Hamrun Spartans fans celebrated their team’s win against Hibernians with an illegal street party on Saturday afternoon.

It has become clear that some of the club’s supporters opted to put their celebrations above the importance of adhering to the Covid-19 regulations. It also seems to be apparant that the threat of current fines is not enough to dissuade some from such actions. Perhaps the time has come for even stricter fines than exist to be put in place, and for far stricter enforcement. The police have said that they are taking action, but clearly that action has not stopped such activities.

The Hamrun Spartans Football club, in a statement, said that it did not organise any celebrations and said that it was only a few fans who did not abide by the health authorities’ directives. These few were spoken to by the police, the club said, adding that the three bars run by the club are closed. The absolute majority of supporters opted for safer celebrations like carcades and stayed in their vehicles observing regulations, the club added. It appealed to all supporters to follow the regulations and covid safety measures.

The club did the right thing by issuing this statement and trying to get all supporters to follow regulations. Hopefully those who have thus far been celebrating in breach of safety protocols will not do so again.

It is good that the police broke up these activities, but at the same time people need to be dissuaded from attending and holding such events in the first place.

Now, in general there are other instances in which people have been breaching Covid regulations, which have absolutely nothing to do with football.  Let us not forget the infamous White Rocks party that took place quite recently, or the tombola event that was broken up last weekend.

People are Covid fatigued yes, but the numbers are high at the moment, despite yesterday’s large number of recoveries. Because the numbers are high, more restrictions were imposed. In order for restrictions to relax, the numbers need to come down. Bar and club owners are struggling financially as they have been closed for months, the tourism industry is non existant currently... being selfish and organising or attending such events in breach of covid regulations is showing disrespect to the whole country and shooting ourselves in the foot long-term.

For every day the numbers are high, we are one day further from beating Covid. The vaccine is being rolled out yes, but lets ensure that our health officials can cope and not end up with a hospital struggling to keep up with virus cases. If we disregard the regulations, we risk our medical frontliners becoming overwhelmed.

We all need to continue making sacrifices and act responsibly.