The government will go ahead with the easing of Covid restrictions as from Sunday in spite of a steady rise in cases within the community, Health Minister Chris Fearne said Monday.
The last day when wearing of masks in schools is 13 April, which means that when children return to school after the Easter holidays, they will no longer be required to wear them in class.
Speaking on TVAM, the health minister said that this is possible because the number of patients in hospital has remained low.
In the last week, Malta has registered between 550 and 700 cases a day, with a seven-day average of 640. But there are only five people in intensive care, he said, with Malta having the lowest rate in Europe.
This is largely as a result of the high number of people who took the booster dose, Fearne said. The minister is currently in quarantine as last Thursday he tested positive to the virus.
This situation means that Malta can continue with the implementation of the recovery roadmap that was announced a few weeks ago.
Although quarantine for positive cases will remain mandatory, we will gradually approach normality while protecting the vulnerable, Fearne said.
As from Sunday, people attending seated and standing events outside no longer need to produce a vaccine certificate. Only people attending standing events inside need to continue producing such a certificate, he said.
Palm Sunday and Good Friday events will therefore be permissible, he added, although he encouraged people to still exercise caution and not crowd inside bars and clubs.
As from Monday, unvaccinated people arriving from red zones abroad will need to produce a recovery certificate of up to 180 days or a PCR test taken 72 hours before departure.
Fearne said that the last day when the wearing of masks in schools will be obligatory is 13 April, which means that after the Easter holidays schoolchildren can stay in class without a mask.
The minister added that self-testing will start being allowed as of this week. If the result is positive, the person taking the test needs to go into quarantine and speak to their GP.
The government will also offer a second booster to those with immunocompromised conditions and people in homes for the elderly. This will be on a voluntary basis and will not have an impact on the vaccination certificate.
In a statement, the Nationalist Party welcomed the news that restrictions linked with the pandemic will be eased.
It said that it has always believed that the government should have shown more confidence in the people and the introduction of self-testing kits will help to control the situation better, without impinging on individual freedoms.