Doctors will now have to choose between who will live and who will die, MUMN President Paul Pace told The Malta Independent in reaction to the amount of Covid-19 cases found on Wednesday.
Contacted by this newsroom, Pace’s comments were strongly in favour of a lockdown and were critical of the decisions which brought the country into the current situation.
510 new cases of Covid-19 were found on Wednesday, smashing the previous record of cases found in a single day.
“The writing is on the wall; this is not something you agree or disagree with”, Pace said as he weighed in with what the scientific repercussions could be if the country does not go into an immediate lockdown.
The recently implemented measures, which include the closure of restaurants and the limiting of people who can enter households together, along with the other mitigation measures which have been in place for months have clearly had little to no effect, Pace said.
“We have to take the decisions other countries were not afraid to take. It can only get worse and our ITUs are full up and we have officially reached the breaking point”. Pace added.
Pace continued to weigh in on the stresses the healthcare system is facing. “Doctors now have to choose who will live and who will die. This is all because the beds in ITU are full”.
Paul Pace
The blame for all this, Pace said, is the message constantly being transmitted to the population that the hospital is coping well and that normality is a stone’s throw away.
Early in January, Dr. Kenneth Grech was removed from the Covid-19 team; Pace said that “The resignation of Dr. Grech shows that there were cracks on the Covid-19 advice team of the Prime Minister”.
When we look at the economy, Pace said that this is already in ruins without a lock down so the importance of going into lock down now is of utmost importance before it is too late for everything and everyone.
“We are already paying the price of the wrong decisions being taken […] We got to this stage by saying that the hospital can cope. What do we expect? That the hospitals break in order for us to take a proper decision?”
“This situation is not like when you’re driving a car, where you press the brake pedal and the car stops immediately. This is a virus there is no metaphorical brake pedal to press which will make it stop overnight. We should have never reached this point. This is shameful on the people and shameful on the politicians.”
Pace then finished off that he expected better from Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci. “Journalists have every right to ask what is going on and why crucial decisions are not being taken.”