Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday that that “despite the challenges that the country and its people are facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the reality that we will defeat and overcome it, still exists.” 

Abela was speaking during a Labour Party discussion program about various current events, mainly centred on the Covid-19 pandemic. This replaced the customary weekend political gathering. 

Speaking about the restrictive measures that had to be implemented in the past year, PM Abela explained that the decisions that are being made are all based on science. He stressed that from the start of all this, scientific evidence showed that “the pandemic was going to be a marathon and a not a sprint.” 

“In addition, the government made decisions based on the current situation and always with caution. This was done while maintaining the balance between people’s health and livelihood”, he said. 

Despite these decisions, Abela expressed that last week was one of the hardest moments of the pandemic to date. 

PM Abela conveyed a message of solidarity and empathy to those who lost their loved ones due to the pandemic but remarked that the government has done everything in its power to prevent tens of thousands of deaths occurring in Malta.   

Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has recently accused the EU of giving preferential treatment to Malta when distributing Covid-19 vaccines, as Malta is set to receive three times as many vaccine doses per capita. 

Abela was making reference to this criticism and stated that “the way we have worked, invested and strategically operated to protect the Maltese population makes us proud. The government operated legitimately and aggressively for its people.” 

He reiterated his appeal against partisan opportunism during this time by inviting the Opposition party to join and support the government in an effort to protect the country and work as ‘Team Malta.’ 

The central appeal during this pandemic remains that of being responsible, Abela said. 

Meanwhile, during the same program, a number of speakers intervened, among them being respiratory physician Stephen Montefort, Doctor Marius Caruana, surgeon Jo Etienne Abela, finance analyst Jessica Camilleri, deputy secretary of the General Workers Union (GWU) Kevin Camilleri, lawyer Lynn Faure and educator Abigail Camilleri. 

The first speaker during the discussion was respiratory physician Stephen Montefort who spoke about the new variant that is dominating the majority of positive cases in Malta. 

Montefort explained that “a virus like Covid-19 can lead to producing different mutations including the current new variants we are facing. These variants of concern are of South Africa, Brazil and the UK. The latter is the one that is affecting us the most.” 

He added that the UK variant is currently located in 110 countries and currently Malta has around 60% of this variant. 

In comparison to the ‘normal’ Covid-19 virus, the UK variant seems to be posing more difficulties when it comes to controlling it. This is because studies have shown that this variant in particular is 70% more transmissible. 

Despite this rate, Montefort explained that “this does not mean that the UK variant will increase the number of deaths, but it may increase the number of admissions within hospitals.” 

For his part, Doctor Marius Caruana spoke about the vaccination programme in Malta. 

He remarked that Malta has a total of 40 vaccination hubs which are running at a rate of 4,000 vaccines per day. This means that 8% of the Maltese population has received the two doses against Covid-19 and at least 17% have received one dose. 

He explained that since the vaccination programme started off with inoculating the vulnerable age group, over 80% of that group is now protected and vaccinated. This means that the hospital is seeing a decrease in admissions of people within that age group who are being admitted due to Covid-19 reasons. 

Caruana strongly appealed that “if you have received an appointment to take the vaccine against Covid-19, go and take it.” 

He also stressed that people should be informed only through official information that exists regarding the vaccine. 

Surgeon Jo Etienne Abela supported the investment made by the government into the health sector, saying that this “has been very positive as our supply for Covid-19 equipment has never diminished in the last year.” 

Financial analyst Jessica Camilleri spoke about the economic situation in Malta and said that despite the pandemic the European Commission has given positive results for how Malta will be one of the first to recover from the economic effects of Covid-19. 

Camilleri stressed the importance of transitioning to more digital and technological systems to make the path to economic normalcy easier. 

Deputy Secretary of the GWU also mentioned that due to the measures announced by the government over the past year, Malta has managed to keep a strong position when it comes to employment, compared to other countries. 

The program also discussed the issue of gender inequality in the political field. Speaking about women in parliament and the discussion in introducing a mechanism to ensure a proper gender balance in Maltese politics, lawyer Lynn Faure said that at this stage women who are interested in politics must be ready to experience ongoing competition as Malta still has an undeniably male-oriented political landscape. 

Abela remarked that people must understand that there is a need for more participation and representation of women in our parliament. 

He added that every change brings debate and controversy however, this is not a government that is afraid of change. 

“The traditional method of how the electorate votes and how deputies are elected will remain in place. However, the gender corrective mechanism will seek to add extra seats which are to be taken up by women,” Abela said. 

Educator Abigail Camilleri mentioned and praised the investment made by the government in the field of education in order to give students the opportunity to progress and gain the necessary knowledge for a bright future.