3 cases of new Covid-19 variant found in Malta
Updated 01:30 PM
Coronavirus, COVID-19, Community response, Health workers, PPEs, medical supplies, Lebanon
Deputy PM and Minister for Health Chris Fearne has tweeted the arrival of the UK Covid-19 variant to Malta. This was also confirmed by the Superintendent of Public Health, Prof. Charmaine Gauci, who announced that 3 cases have been found in Malta.
Gauci said this during a live press briefing. She explained that 2 cases were foreigners, having just arrived from the UK. The third case, however, is a 75-year-old Maltese woman. Investigations are ongoing as to how she contracted this strain. Gauci went on to say that this strain does not indicate an increase in the severity of the virus, but rather a 70% increase in transmission rate.
Students in two independent schools have been told to work from home for the beginning of next term, citing health and safety reasons following the festive holidays.
Pupils at San Anton will be in remote learning mode for the first two weeks, according to an email sent to parents, while those at San Andrea will be online for the first week of school.
Superintendent of Public Health, Charmaine Gauci, has previously said that authorities were not seeing transmission between pupils at school and that social distancing measures were working in the classroom.
However, in an e-mail that took some parents by surprise, San Anton School said it has been advised by its COVID-19 medical committee to start its second term in remote-learning mode for the first two weeks, given current developments and past experience of virus infection trends after school breaks.
Opposition leader Bernard Grech and his wife Anne Marie won t be going anywhere for Christmas this year, as the couple have had to quarantine due to possible exposure to COVID-19.
In a Facebook post, Grech said that a student and a learning support assistant at the school where his wife teaches had tested positive for the virus.
On the instructions of the Superintendent of Public Health, Grech said that he and his wife would observe mandatory quarantine until January 1.
“Our physical presence will be suspended in the coming days, but it will continue through virtual means,” Grech said.
“I want to take this opportunity to appeal to everybody to observe the directives put out by the Department of Public Health, particularly during the festive period. Let us stay in contact with each other but let us also take care of each other.”
Doctors have called for Malta to phase out all flights from the UK in an attempt to restrict the spread of a highly-infectious coronavirus variant.
Currently, Maltese nationals and residents are allowed to fly from Britain to Malta, with strict protocols on arrival including multiple tests and a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
But the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) said the government should go one step further and completely block travel from the UK.
“The advice we would give as MAM is to repeat the protocols used for repatriation flights that were organised back in March of this year,” the union’s president, Martin Balzan, said.
In a press conference at the Health Ministry, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health Chris Fearne has announced that moments ago, the European Medicines Agency has given its approval, for the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNtech, to be distributed within the European Union member states.
This means that in the coming hours, further approval will also be given by the European Commission, so that, the COVID-19 vaccine will be given in Malta, on the same day as all the other member states.
Deputy Prime Minister Fearne said that on Saturday, Pfizer will be delivering the first consignment of the vaccine in Malta, which will include some 10,000 doses. Two days after that, on Monday, and every other Monday, further doses will be consigned to Malta, until the 500,000 doses which are ordered would all be in Malta.