Prime Minister Robert Abela has appealed for the Nationalist Party to put aside their political disputes and join forces with the Labour Party to put the common good of the Maltese first in order to control the pandemic.

An emergency parliamentary session was held this morning to discuss the new measures to curb the Covid-19 pandemic. No parliamentary questions were taken ahead during the meeting, in order for the new measures to be the main focus of discussion.

Prioritization of health

PM Abela said that people do not want to hear political parties grappling with each other at this moment, but want to hear scientific fact and solutions. “Health is put first and above anything else, that is our priority. It was the same 12 months ago and it is the same now”, he said.

Abela said that the aim of the new measures is to help the nation to defend itself from the virus while health authorities continue to attack the virus with the vaccine. He said that he is confident that the combination of steady vaccination and adhering to the measures will help the Maltese to beat the pandemic.

This approach, however, will take time to bear its results. “We knew this wasn’t going to be a sprint, but a marathon”, Abela said.

Despite health being a priority for Abela, he also identified a need for “the economic wheel to keep turning” to ensure that there are no businesses that have failed because of the pandemic, or any businesses that can’t recover. For this reason, wage supplements have been extended to the end of this year, in order to keep struggling businesses afloat.

Education

Minister for Education Justyne Caruana said that the decision to close schools and move exclusively online was taken for the general good, in order to prioritize the health of children, educators and scholastic members of staff.

She said that €30 million has been invested into schools to ensure that online education is of the best quality possible.

She also said that she consulted with the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), church schools and independent schools and they are happy with the decision to move schools online.

UK Variant

Deputy Minister Chris Fearne said that the new variant of Covid is “like an atomic bomb” that has left a massive effect on the Maltese, so much so that it is “taking over the original Covid”. Two thirds of the new cases are originating from the UK variant, he said.

He said the new measures were taken to address the problems that the UK variant is bringing, while still allowing the economy to function.

Fearne said that all the measures taken thus far over the past 12 months have been “just right” and that a balance has been retained between all the work that has been done already to control the virus, and the safeguarding of the future.

He said that the system of contact tracing is growing ever stronger, so much so that it takes four hours to contact a positive case and a “short amount of time” to contact those who were in primary contact with the case.

Herd immunity should be achieved by August, he confirmed.

He said that the vaccination process is moving along successfully, and that new vaccination centres are being opened. Amongst them, a new vaccination centre was opened in MCAST, and tomorrow another vaccination centre will open in Aurora Theatre, Gozo.

“We have been moving in a careful way”, Fearne said. “We are one nation working together to defeat the virus”.