Prime Minister to be swabbed for COVID-19 after Libya visit

Prime Minister Robert Abela and his retinue are to be swabbed for COVID-19 after they returned from an official trip to Libya yesterday.

Abela was granted special exemption from quarantine for himself and those on the aircraft.

The Public Health Superintendent had consented to a request from the Office of the Prime Minister, to exempt Prime Minister Robert Abela from a mandatory quarantine period after his lightning visit to Tripoli.

The visit included foreign minister Evarist Bartolo and home affairs minister Byron Camilleri.

In a notice published in the Government Gazette, Prof. Charmaine Gauci instructed that the provisions of the quarantine public order had been suspended from 28 May, 2020, for all persons on the Prime Minister’s chartered private jet flight from Malta to Libya, returning that same day.

“This suspension is granted on the basis that the persons travelling on these flights provide an essential service, the very limited period of time that was spent abroad, national security emergency relating to the travel and urgency of the trip abroad,” the Superintendent said.

But while the quarantine exemption still stands, the Superintendent of Public Health insisted that those who attended the meeting abroad be swabbed for COVID-19.

Abela travelled to Libya on Thursday for talks with the head of Libya’s Government of National Accord, Fayez al-Sarraj on the setting up of joint coordination units in their respective capitals to tackle the migration crisis.