The mandatory Covid-19 period for essential Mater Dei staff who have been fully vaccinated has been reduced from 14 days to five days, a legal notice published in the Government Gazette announced.

This legal notice amendment affects the mandatory quarantine period that must follow when one has contact with a person who then tests positive for Covid-19.

The notice, which was published in Wednesday’s Government Gazette, lays out several provisions which must be satisfied for the quarantine period to be reduced from two weeks to five days.

As per the amendments, the reduction in quarantine first and foremost only applies to those deemed to be “essential” for the running of Mater Dei Hospital.  Such a determination has to be made by the Medical Director of the hospital.

The legal notice then sets out six points which must be satisfied.

Firstly, the person must have completed a full course of a Covid-19 vaccine – which means that they must have taken both doses of the vaccine, and secondly, at least 14 days must have elapsed since the final dose of the said vaccine has been taken.

Thirdly, the person must be asymptomatic and, fourthly, they must reside in a household where all members are asymptomatic.

Furthermore, they cannot have been in domiciliary contact with any other individual known to be either positive for Covid-19 or who has had significant exposure to a confirmed Covid-19 case in the previous two weeks.

Finally, these workers must, before being allowed out of quarantine after just five days, test negative for Covid-19 through a PCR swab tests which is done on the fifth day following exposure to the confirmed Covid-19 case.

The measure is the first reduction to the mandatory quarantine period which has been a fixed feature of Covid-19 measures since the pandemic arrived in Malta last year.

Medical frontliners where the first cohort to be vaccinated for Covid-19, and take-up of the vaccine was very high: Health Minister Chris Fearne told this newsroom in an interview earlier this month that some 94% of medical frontliners had accepted the vaccine.

Those who hadn’t, he had said, were, in the vast majority, those who medically could not receive the vaccine as they were either pregnant or unwell at the time of their appointment.