PN leader Bernard Grech has called for an immediate national public health emergency to be declared as Covid-19 cases continue to rise to record numbers.
In a short video statement on Wednesday afternoon – an hour or so after Malta recorded a record 510 new cases of Covid-19 – Grech said that it was clear that the pandemic had escaped the Prime Minister’s control.
“This is no coincidence”, he said.
“You reap what you sow: the Prime Minister sowed haughtiness and hardheadness – he sowed arrogance, saw till the tip of his nose, made irresponsible declarations, and took wrong decisions”, Grech said.
He said that Malta’s families, youths, elderly, and businesses are now paying the consequences of this.
Grech said that what is going in vis a vis the pandemic is the direct responsibility of the Prime Minister and of every minister and MP who, despite seeing the evident collapse and crisis in the situation, did not confront the Prime Minister.
“This is a crisis which the Prime Minister brought unto himself, and he has to shoulder responsibility for it”, Grech said before adding that he had done this by ignoring the direction of health authorities and deciding things by himself.
He said that Malta’s health systems are in a state of collapse, despite the best efforts of medical frontliners.
Given the situation, and given Robert Abela’s failure to control it, Grech said, the PN is insisting on the calling of a national public health emergency, so that health authorities can take the necessary decisions without the approval of politicians.
He said that it is essential that the emergency is called immediately so that the country does not need to revert to drastic measures that are becoming more and more inevitable as time passes, and so the pandemic can be controlled.
“While you are worried, the captain of the ship who steered us into this storm last week crumpled under the pressure and has now disappeared. That’s why health authorities need to lead the fight against this pandemic in such a manner that is based on scientific evidence”, Grech said.
“This is a moment which requires mature and competent politicians who can decide, and decide with conviction not convenience”, he concluded.