Prime Minister non-committal on reopening of bars and clubs on 1 December

Prime Minster Robert Abela did not say whether bars and clubs will be reopening or not on 1 December, in response to a question posed by The Malta Independent.

At the end of October, the government introduced a number of restrictive measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. These measures included the complete closure of bars and clubs starting from 29 October until 1 December at 6 am.

On Tuesday, The Malta Independent asked Prime Minister Abela if the government still plans to have bars and clubs open in two weeks’ time, considering that the number of new COVID-19 cases being reported daily is more or less the same as before and that the number of active cases has exceeded 2,000.

Abela did not commit to a direct answer, but said: “Naturally, one has to reevaluate the situation as we get closer to the date and see if it needs to be extended.”

He said that this decision will be taken with the advice of the Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci and Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne.

“One primary focus will be safeguarding people’s health,” he said. “We are seeing that there has been no exponential growth in the number of COVID19 cases with the help of the measures that were put in place and a good number of people are recovering. When we look at other countries, we can see that they have lost control of the rate of infection, so I appeal to everyone to keep being cautious.”

Abela said that he acknowledges and understands the difficulties that bar and club owners are experiencing, as their livelihood depends on their business. He assured that, whatever decision the authorities take by the end of this month, the government will keep sustaining these business owners.

“This very morning we held a Cabinet discussion on how we will keep sustaining anyone who works in these businesses,” he said yesterday.

Asked to elaborate on what kind of extra measures are being discussed to help the business owners in question, he said that such details will be announced at a later date, while insisting that the principle focus will be on safeguarding people’s jobs.

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Fearne had said that as temperatures begin to drop in the winter months, the number of COVID19 cases is expected to increase further. He said that a COVID-19 vaccine is, if all trials succeed, scheduled to be ready for distribution in January 2021, and that Malta will be able to vaccinate its whole population within six months from that point.

Malta currently has 2,097 active cases of COVID-19 after 110 cases were reported on Tuesday.