Nurses' union slams 'shameful' quarantine hotels measure

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has called out regulations obliging travellers from dark red countries to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks.

“It is clearly evident that this is not a COVID-19 measure, but a punishment for going abroad to a red zone country,” the union said on Tuesday as it joined a growing chorus of opposition to the draconian measure. “COVID-19 measures of this type are not acceptable since there are constraints in one’s life and travel is not always for pleasure.”

The statement comes after a mother appealed to the health authorities to allow her daughter with Down’s Syndrome to quarantine at home rather than at a hotel.

Rachel Umanah travelled to Nigeria with her brother and father, where she visited her grandparents. All three will have to quarantine on return to Malta as per COVID-19 protocols issued by the Maltese health authorities, given that Nigeria is a dark red country.

The union said that although the person pays €100 daily, the service in these hotels is far from acceptable.

“In fact, MUMN had to intervene when a nurse was locked in one of these hotel rooms for two weeks with his wife and small daughter, without internet and without food,” it said.

The union went on to call the measures “a shame on this country”, appealing to the Prime Minister to change the legal notice allowing all those who have a residence to quarantine at home.

“MUMN is also informed that current nursing agencies that bring nurses from abroad to work in Malta are finding great difficulties in doing so because of this useless measure,” it said. “Through covid measures, certain hotel establishment are making money out of poor people who were constrained to travel.”

MUMN said public health went overboard, causing unnecessary human suffering as a “form of punishment.”

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