Coronavirus: Unions call for pre-emptive lockdown with immediate effect

Unions yesterday called for a lockdown to ensure that the country is in a better position to control the spread of coronavirus.

The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) called for an immediate three-week pre-emptive lockdown in what would be a drastic measure to tackle the spread of the virus.

In a statement, MAM noted with satisfaction that new travel restrictions have been announced by the government.

However, the Italian and Chinese experience of COVID-19 shows that half-measures, although well-intentioned, do not work.

MAM representatives, together with all other trade unions had a meeting with the Principal Permanent Secretary yesterday morning. The medical association, together with other trade unions, are calling for a pre-emptive lockdown for a minimum of three weeks to be enforced with immediate effect. This means the following:

· All local residents will be in manda

tory quarantine

· Only employees providing emergency services such as MDH and health centres, power stations, water services and other essential infrastructures would be allowed. People should leave their homes only to buy essential items. · All shops and places of entertainment except for pharmacies, supermarkets and groceries and food retail outlets (excluding restaurants and pubs) are to be closed during this period.

· All schools and universities should

remain closed during this period. · The airport and ports would be closed to visitors and only allow repatriation of Malta residents stranded abroad. Any repatriations of local residents need to be followed by a strict, mandatory quarantine period of two weeks. · Transport of goods and cargo

will continue unaffected.

· No residents in Malta are to be allowed to travel outside the country without permission of the health authority.

Other countries have only managed to control this disease by implementing such strict measures early on, the MAM said. If we do not take these measures now, we are very likely to have to take them anyway soon, with the risk of overwhelming our health service and our capacity to respond to the crisis. China managed to control the local epidemic within a period of three weeks and have now issued a travel ban to Europe to avoid import cases such has been the success of these measures.

UĦM - Voice of the Workers has also called for a preventive lockdown.

It said the country has two options; enforce a lockdown when local transmission of the coronavirus starts or preventive lockdown to prevent this from happening.

It warned that, if local transmission starts, the country will likely not have the physical and human resource capabilities to address the situation.

The lockdown should serve as a quarantine and workers should be paid their full salary.

The union said the government has a duty to speak with the social partners to come up with a holistic contingency plan.

In a meeting held on Friday, no agreement was reached about a lockdown, it said.

It also said that some workers are not being afforded the necessary protection, such as protective clothing. It said it will take the necessary measures to safeguard the health and safety of employees.

UĦM appealed to the government to take action before it’s too late. It noted that it had advised the government to stop flights from high-risk countries. Had it done this, there would not have been any coronavirus cases.

The MUT also called the government to proceed with a lockdown. The MUT is noting all indications regarding a lockdown of the country. It is now evident that it is a question of when rather than if. The MUT believes that an early decision needs to be taken by the government to limit the spread of the virus.

Postponing lockdown would mean closing door after horse bolted – MAM

Postponing a lockdown due to the spread of coronavirus would signify closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, the Medical Association of Malta said yesterday. Reacting to the press conference given by the Prime Minister, the association noted that Robert Abela has confirmed that lockdown will definitely be necessary when there is documented sustained local transmission. The statement that a “lockdown suffering will be much bigger than that caused by coronavirus” seems to be in direct contradiction to his declared intention to introduce it at more troubled times. Undoubtedly it will be a necessary sacrifice.This is a new disease and there is no ‘’ ‘textbook’’ solution, but we must learn from other countries’ mistakes. The problem with waiting for documentation of local person-to-person transmission is that there is a significant time lag between infection with the virus and clinical illness. This means that a lockdown would then come into effect only after there was uncontrollable spread, with potentially devastating consequences on human health. This is more probable in a small and densely populated country like ours. It is clear from China, Italy, and now Spain that half measures have been proven to be completely ineffective, and all three governments have resorted to drastic measures, including a state of emergency in Spain. In China a full lockdown has been very effective to the extent that the epidemic was rapidly terminated by this measure, where all others had failed, the MAM said.

People lean out of their home's balconies to play and sing during a flash mob launched throughout Italy to bring people together and try to cope with the emergency of coronavirus, in Milan