‘We have acquired this advantage through sacrifices – we cannot falter now’ – Chris Fearne

Malta has seen a drastic drop in Covid19 case numbers as of recent weeks. Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne believes that this is both down to the vaccination drive and the restrictive measures that were put in place. He also noted that Malta should avoid having a trajectory such as that in Chile, where although the country has a vaccination rate similar to Malta’s, it is facing a high number of cases after removing all measures.

That is why Malta is taking a cautious approach, the Minister said. “We have not vaccinated everyone yet. We have vaccinated around half of adults, which is a good rate, but it also means that the other half still need to be vaccinated. So we need to protect the second half of the population and society itself with the measures we have in place,” he said.

“It doesn’t mean that we cannot start removing some measures, and that is what we are doing. But, we have to remove

“From the very start, AstraZeneca fell behind on promised deliveries. After three months of failed negotiations, the EU Member States have collectively opened a case against the company” - Fearne

measures in a calibrated way. Our plan is to have a gradual relaxation of measures; it goes one step at a time with the vaccination drive. With every step that we take, we leave some time to see if it will have a negative effect on the new cases.”

Vaccine impact

Fearne noted that the recent acquisition of an extra 50 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the second quarter of the year by the EU, and now that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is available for use, will help Malta keep up a good vaccination rate. However, there have been hiccups.

“From the very start, AstraZeneca fell behind on promised deliveries. After three months of failed negotiations, the EU Member States have collectively opened a case against the company.”

However, the Deputy Prime Minister said that since Malta was “prudent” and bought from different companies, “we have enough doses to reach our target of giving 70% of adults the first dose by June” and that “Malta will have offered the vaccine to everyone by the end of August.”

Vaccine invitations

Fearne noted that 90% of 60year-olds have been vaccinated, while those who have not yet been vaccinated can contact the health authorities to book an appointment via SMS or calling 145.

Regarding the cohort from 50 to 59 years of age, Fearne said that they had a great response; more than 75% of the people in this category have registered and more than two-thirds have received the vaccine, while now the country has opened registration for those 40 and over. Fearne urged this cohort to apply either through vaccin.gov.mt or by sending a message 99180044 for Gozo and 99180045 for Malta.

He noted that the next step of opening invites for those below 40 is a few weeks away.

“This group between 40 and 49 years of age is a big group; bigger than those between 50 and 59, so even if we continue to sustain the high rate of vaccinations that we have, it will take a number of weeks to inoculate all of them. However, our plan is to start vaccinating those who are under 40 years of age in due time,” Fearne said.

Relaxing of measures

Fearne remarked that the government already has a detailed plan on how and what measures will be gradually relaxed. “It will obviously depend on what happens after we start relaxing the measures and on the vaccination rate. This rate depends on how many vaccines are delivered, on how many people register for the vaccine, and on whether new variants reach Malta.”

The Health Minister said that following the relaxation of measures on Monday, the health authorities will wait a few days to see whether there is a negative reaction on new cases before announcing the next set of measures to be relaxed.

“We want to see that social life and the economy start to breathe again, as well as sports, as we will encourage people to do physical activities, but the details will be announced in the coming days,” he said.

Sports

From statistics published by the Superintendent of Public Health every Friday, it seems that sports were only pinpointed as the cause of transmission in less than 5% of new cases registered every week. Asked why they decided to close such activities, Fearne said that this would depend on the risk assessment.

“Every activity that we restrict has an impact on the lives of the people; when you close shops, it will affect both the ones who use them and also the ones who own them ... the same with każini. Everyone is making sacrifices, but we have to give priority to health,” he said.

Mass events

The Minister observed that mass events will be “one of the last things to be allowed.”

“Remember that we have manoeuvred ourselves into a situation which is very good in the sense that we will possibly be one of the few European countries which will be on the green list of other countries.”

Fearne also observed that tourism is “essential” for our economy and that Malta will be one of those few countries where “who wants to travel and has taken the vaccine will want to come here because they wouldn’t need to follow certain restrictions to go back to their country.”

“Our country will be safe this summer; there will be social activities as the numbers will go down as we would have vaccinated a lot of people, so we will be in a better position than neighbouring countries. We need to maintain this advantage, even if it means continuing to make sacrifices in the coming weeks.”

“We have acquired this advantage through sacrifices and good decisions. We cannot falter now. We need to remain vigilant because in June we need to be on other countries’ green list, which means a safe destination for tourists.”

Vaccine passports

Regarding vaccine passports, the Minister said that there are two initiatives taking place. First, there is the European Green Passport, which entails that European citizens will be able to travel from one country to another within the EU if they are vaccinated or provide a negative PCR test result for the virus.

However, there is also another initiative Malta is working on for travel to and from non-EU countries, such as the UK.

“We are at a point where we will publish the legislation which will let us get the vaccine passports, which means that Maltese citizens with both vaccine doses can, after two weeks and with a certificate, travel to these countries without the restrictions that are present today.”

“We are working on such a bilateral agreement with a number of countries and the indications are that we will have this system in place in the coming days.”

Elderly care homes

The minister remarked that day care centres will be included in the next round of relaxation of measures.

“98% of people in elderly care homes have been vaccinated and measures there are being gradually relaxed in agreement with the Ministry for the Elderly and the health authorities,” he said.

Non-Covid health services

Fearne remarked that the Government has started to plan to catch up on non-Covid related health services.

“This was a smaller reduction than what other countries had…we are already working on a plan on how to recover this in the coming months, and we will be providing details in due time. However, once Covid truly starts to pass.”

The pandemic has left not only effects on the economy and mortality, but also on mental health. Fearne remarked that there is also a plan to tackle this. “In the coming weeks, we will be opening some new services, both at Mount Carmel and outside, but our plan is that 2022 would be the year of mental health where we will be introducing a number of projects in terms of hospitals which specialise in mental health care, in the communities, as well as preventative care.”