Imagine the massive sigh of relief from the near-bankrupt tourist industry on learning that “Malta, Gozo and Comino” are due to reopen to vaccinated British tourists from June 1.

So desperate are we to get them in and spending money that they won’t even be delayed by having to be tested for the virus on arrival at Luqa.

Good for Malta. As are most government decisions. Not so good for Gozo, though, where the over 75s are still awaiting their first inoculation.

They were first told on FaceBook – assumed to be the best way of addressing Gozitan septuagenarians – to phone in and make an appointment.

Most of them, I assume, went through the same rigmarole: wait ten minutes for your call to be answered, and then name, address, ID, home phone, mobile… only to be told that you would be getting a letter “in the coming days.”

The question has to be asked: Who is sending the invitations and on what basis? It is not in alphabetical order, nor according to ID number, not village by village – and certainly not by age. Are they sent by Identity Malta, by the Ministry of Health, or (as it would appear) like a lottery by “lucky dip”?

Enquiry defeats even those who expect routine Maltese inefficiency in most things. There is no point in asking the Helpline, whose employees simply confess to not knowing whether there is a “system.”

The call to phone for an appointment was repeated last week by Professor Charmaine Gauci, who presumably doesn’t know what’s happening, either.

So I hope that the tourists who flock in with their viruses will not, in fact, be allowed on either Comino or Gozo.

If they do, and if they mix with the locals, we will have to start serious lockdowns all over again. And we know how the last one started.

That would mean goodbye to tourism, for another year…

Revel Barker,

Ghajnsielem.

 

Permalink: Gozitans still waiting for their first inoculations