Religious pilgrimages will be limited to 100 people, Health Ministry says

Festa marches have been banned but religious pilgrimages can be held with a limit of 100 people although it is unclear how this can be enforced

31 July 2020, 10:44am
by Kurt Sansone

2 min read

The Our Lady of Mount Carmel pilgrimage held on 16 July in Valletta: the church limited its external celebrations to pilgrimages when restrictions were lifted but in parishes where the external festivities are organised by band clubs, police were giving out permits for marches where alcohol and revelry mix with devotion

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Religious pilgrimages can still go ahead but these will have to be limited to 100 people with social distancing measures in place, the Health Ministry said.

The clarification was made on Friday morning, hours after Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne announced that festa marches will no longer be held as government unveiled new restrictive measures to fight back a recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

Most festa marches had already been cancelled by band clubs in the wake of the spike in infections, part of which were attributable to the Santa Venera feast.

However, it remains unclear how the number of people in a pilgrimage can be controlled given that these are held in public streets. The limitation on pilgrimages was agreed with the Curia.

On Thursday, the government reacted to growing calls for a ban on mass events in the wake of a surge in coronavirus cases by introducing new restrictive measure.

It, however, stopped short of an outright ban as requested by doctors, nurses and others in the healthcare system.

The new measures introduce a limit on the number of people establishments can accept – one person per 4sq.m – a minimum distance of 2m between tables in restaurants, with a maximum of 10 people per table, and the requirement of a risk assessment by organisers of events where more than 100 people will attend.

In mass events, organisers will also have to ensure that people do not gather in groups of more than 10.

Organisers of mass events will have to retain the details of revellers attending the activity for a maximum of four weeks, to make it easier for the health authorities to trace people if need be.

Fearne added that the capacity to carry out swab tests was increasing in light of a recent surge of people requesting to be swabbed. Long delays in testing have been reported.

By Thursday Malta had 140 active cases of coronavirus, including 85 migrants who were brought to the island earlier this week.

The migrants are being kept in isolation at the Ħal Far Initial Reception Centre.

Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday. He was formerly deputy editor of MaltaTod...