Malta won’t be heading towards a lockdown, Prime Minister Robert Abela noted, shutting down speculations circling on social media.

“I don’t know from where this came but I can confirm that we are not heading towards a total lockdown,” he said, referring to a screenshot that has been making the rounds announcing new COVID-19 measures and implying a total lockdown, according to reports.

“I will not contradict Charmaine Gauci and my colleague Chris Fearne. But it is important that we understand where we are. The world is heading towards total lockdowns. We are living with restrictions but continuing with our life. But we must be careful not to relax on our measures,” he said, when asked whether face-mask measures should be relaxed to allow people to walk without a mask in the countryside.

“We have to evaluate what happens if we lift some restrictions and whether this will result in stricter measures having to be introduced in the following weeks. This is something we do not want to do,” he said.

A few weeks ago, Malta introduced mandatory mask wearing in when outside the home, closed bars, clubs and kazini until 1^st December, and reduced the number of people that can gather from 10 to six in the hope of curbing the spread of COVID-19.