Doctors extending directives until Friday as record number of cases expected today
Doctors are calling for more measures to be taken.
In a matter of weeks, Malta’s COVID-19 situation went from having three active cases to shooting to 440. In light of this, the doctors’ union issued directives for their members to follow after the spike in cases due to mass events. With doctors saying a record number of cases expected today, MAM has announced it will be extending its directives until Friday.
Last week, the association issued a list of directives for members to follow which came into force on Thursday 6th August after no agreement was reached on cancelling mass events. “What all the other EU countries are strictly prohibiting, our authorities are doing exactly the opposite,” MAM president Martin Balzan said last week.
Today, MAM said in a statement that it will be extending its directives until Friday and will be suspending them between 15th and 23rd August. However, if further measures aren’t taken by cabinet, the directives will be put back into force by 24th August, including the suspension of elective surgeries which were previously reinstated as a gesture of goodwill.
Also according to Gerald Fenech’s updates, it seems we should expect around 72 cases as the R Factor also increased. Of course, official figures will be announced later on today by health authorities.
As a result of this surge in cases, a number of countries have removed Malta from their safe lists including Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ireland, Slovenia, Greece. As of yesterday, Emilia Romagna and Puglia implemented travel restrictions to Malta, while the US also declared our islands as a high-risk area.
As it stands, Malta has 440 active cases after 29 new cases were reported yesterday. Out of a total of 1,141 cases our country has recorded since the outbreak, 692 have recovered.