Fifteen specialist health associations are insisting that household gatherings are curtailed over the Easter period and appealed to the public to refrain from meeting people outside their household over Easter.
In a joint statement, they insisted that, “only a maximum of two household should be allowed and only because working parents may need to leave their children with other family members. Strict safety measures need to be adhered to, even within households.”
“We are however grateful to the public who, in their majority, have followed public health measures,” they said.
“Our own local data and that from abroad indicate that household gatherings are one of the most efficient ways of spreading the virus and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) have spelt this out on several occasions,” they said.
The associations warned that, “with everywhere closed over Easter, the risk of families meeting indoors is high and all the sacrifices made over this month will, once again, be undone if we are not self disciplined.”
They associations also urged the health authorities to be “constantly proactive in managing the crisis, mitigation has often been too little and too late, resulting in a precarious health situation today.”
The associations warned that, “healthy young people are dying and the situation will only get worse before it starts to get better. We all need to do our bit to protect ourselves and our loved ones. This virus is different to what it was one year ago. It spreads incredibly quickly and is more deadly.”
The statement was signed by the:
Association of Emergency Physicians Malta, Associations of Surgeons Malta, Association of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeons Malta, Associations of Anaesthetists Malta, Association of Physicians Malta, Malta Association of Ophthalmologists, Malta Association of Psychiatry, Malta Association of Public Health Medicine, Malta Association of Radiologists and Nuclear Medicine Physicians, Malta Association of Dermatologists and Venereologists, Malta College of Pathologists, Malta College of Family Doctors, Malta College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists, Malta paediatric Association and the Geriatric Medicine Society Malta.