Decision time on COVID-19 public health emergency is now, PN Leader says

The time has come for the government to decide on how it was going to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in Malta, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech has said, as new infections reached 100 over the past 24 hours.

“Decision time cannot wait any longer. Today we had another record when we currently have the largest number of active cases of people infected with the virus since the start of the pandemic in Malta and Gozo.”

Grech said he wanted to make it clear that he was against a lockdown and hence it was important that the government declares a public health emergency as soon as possible and hands over authority to the Superintendent for Public Health on important decisions.

The opposition PN leader expressed his appreciation for the Superintendent’s, her staff’s and frontliners’ work over the past months, saying that the skyrocketing numbers were a direct result of Robert Abela’s politics. Abela had famously said that ‘waves are in the sea’ when talking about the prospect of a second wave of infections last summer. “You brought the waves onto us, Prime Minister,” said Grech. “And now because you are leading a government where everything is played down, your politics have failed and you are in a state of panic. This is why it is important to have the Superintendent allowed to take decisions instead of you.”

Grech added that he had postponed tomorrow’s planned visits to Nationalist party clubs and would discuss the PN’s contribution to stopping the pandemic with spokespersons for the parliamentary group.

“We are still waiting for the Prime Minister to show he respects the families of the victims of the pandemic and …fire Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Parnis after his insensitive comments,” added the opposition leader, referring to Parnis’ statement that “no one died from COVID-19 alone.”