G app with rmaine Gauci

person who has no symptoms, there is the chance that they transmit the virus to other people. The number of cases were low when compared to other countries because we immediately had a containment strategy for all cases. We have strong teams on case management to investigate the cases, and a strong strategy for contact tracing. Looking forward, we are also hoping to have a contact tracing app which we are working on with a consortium of European countries in place, as this can help us alert those people who may have had contact with a positive case.

We heard a lot about social distancing and the usage of masks as mitigation measures – can we expect these measures to be in force for months or maybe even years?

The thing with social distancing is that it is good for everything; we know that there are respiratory diseases which spread through droplets, so washing hands, sneezing into a tissue and so on are all prevention measures which we should always follow. They are important both for Covid-19 and for, for instance, influenza. When the influenza season starts, we are hoping that people have understood such measures and that through such prevention measures we can help reduce the number of cases of other viruses.

A lot is being said about the potential for a vaccine – but if this doesn’t materialise and we do not get a vaccine, what happens then?

The prospects of a vaccine being found are good so far. There is a lot of research ongoing and some trials are at their third phase. Some research is showing that there is a certain level of immunity against the virus. These are all positive prospects – they are prospects which we are looking closely at, and as soon as there is an effective vaccine available, we hope to roll it out. We will see that those groups of people who are of high priority receive it first, but then we will also open up to offering it to everyone. This is similar to what had happened in the influenza pandemic in 2009 – we learnt from that; it was a situation wherein when the vaccine became available, we offered it to everyone.

We are carrying out two types of tests in Malta – the normal swab test, and the antibody testing. What are the indications which have emerged from the antibody testing done so far with regards to the population’s immunity to the virus?

So far through the antibody tests which we have validated – and we have seen that this is one of the best tests available – we are starting to test for people’s immunity. As you can expect, and in line with research from abroad, the percentage of people with immunity is very low. We are looking into more studies and the possibility of doing a cross-sectional survey to assess the level of immunity. We must seek out two principles when looking into this; how long the immunity lasts, which is an important point when it comes to the administering of the vaccine as well; and how our strategy with regards to this virus will look like moving forward. However, we, and other countries, are still far from having herd immunity, so we need to keep following mitigation measures so that once the vaccine is made available, we can develop herd immunity that way.

Many have missed your daily briefings and your voice of reassurance, leading to some calls for your briefings to return – what is your message to them?

On the briefings, we were doing them so to be transparent and inform the public – but we also wanted people to learn from them, and we saw cases where there were people who we found to be positive because they saw that they had symptoms which were similar to some of the cases we spoke about and came forward. However they were also important for us to keep passing on the means of prevention and to keep people in the know on what is happening – when people know what is happening, they are being given peace of mind and it is easier for them to trust the authorities. Now we are in a situation where we can keep passing information through interviews such as these but also by still providing the number of cases and some details about them – such as whether they are part of a cluster or not. We are here, here for the public to protect them, and it is our promise to continue doing that.

Finally, on a more personal level, the Nationalist Party have said that they will be nominating you for Gieh irRepubblika – what is your reaction to this?

Honestly, I truly appreciate everyone who worked and cooperated with us. We saw so many people cooperating with us. We were following scientific evidence which balances everything and led us to controlling the situation without going to, for instance, a total lockdown. So, on the public health side we made sure not just to control the virus, but to have the least impact possible on society. I thank everyone who may have seen me, but behind me there is a huge team of people working. The biggest thing I wish for now is for people to keep the basic principles which they have learnt in mind so that we can control not only the current situation, but any situation which can hit us in the future.