The Medical Association of Malta, in reaction to the measures announced by Health Minister Chris Fearne this evening, said that it welcomes the fact the government authorities are now acknowledging the problem with mass events, “however the suggested measures do not go far enough,” and the Association said that it will proceed with industrial action.

It asked why a public health emergency was not declared. “It is not business as usual, we are still in the middle of a global pandemic and the Maltese people deserve to be protected, therefore the MAM council will meet tomorrow morning to finalise the directives.”

MAM thanked Dr Fearne and Prof Gauci for their efforts, saying that “it is clear that the party promoters, have had their way with the politicians and this will not protect the Maltese public at all.”

The Association said that it is “reasonably informed that public health specialists were not consulted and have been presented with a fait accomplit in which their advice was not sought.”

The MAM stressed that it is very disappointed that mass events with thousands of revellers have not been cancelled and the Government “intends to forge ahead as planned, making bank marches the sacrificial lamb.” MAM thanked the archbishop for his stand.

The Association argued that “the fact that no regulations are going to be published and no fines have been announced, and the organisers are encouraged to self enforce will not work in practise, and the free for all seen at the Radisson party will definitely repeat itself.”

“We have the same numbers we had in April, why should we do the opposite of what we did then? The MAM asked.

Earlier this evening Health Minister Chris Fearne announced in a press conference that as from tomorrow – Friday – every event taking place, including weddings etc will have a limitation on the number of persons in attendance, there could be no more than one person for every four square metres.

There could not be more than 10 people together in one group at such events and these must be cut off from other groups, with a distance of 2 metres in between.

Anyone attending the event must provide a contact number with the organisers to enable contact tracing if necessary, these nmbers must be kept for four weeks.

Organisers of such events are responsible to ensure that rules are observed. There would also be inspectors to follow up.

Dr Fearne said that in the case of an event with more than 100 people, organisers need to apply for permission from the Malta Tourism Authority and submit a risk assessment, after which a decision will be made as to whether the event can go ahead.

No permits will be issued by the authorities for band marches to take place during village feasts, while the pilgrimage on the feast day will be limited to 100 people, always social distanced. Dr Fearne explained that this was with an agreement with the Church.

The Superintendent of Public Health, Charmaine Gauci explained that these measures will reduce the risk of transmission and will facilitate the exercise of contact tracing by the Health Authorities in cases of Covid-19.

The duty to ensure that all these regulations are followed will fall on the organisers of the activities and the owners of the establishments, however enforcement will also be increased by inspectors of the MTA and Public Health.

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