Updated 1745 – News Portal Review
TVM says 63 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Malta over the past 24 hours after 2,044 swab tests were carried out. Out of a total of 2,162 confirmed cases in Malta since the start of the pandemic, 388 are still active.
MaltaToday reports that school attendance should remain compulsory, the Children’s Commissioner said as she warned that children regularly absent before the pandemic will continue to fall through the cracks.
Times of Malta says how former police commissioner, Lawrence Cutajar, police held back from raiding Pilatus Bank on the night Egrant allegations surfaced after the attorney general advised that there was no evidence of a crime.
The Malta Independent reports how Malta’s deficit experience in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will carry on into the next year but there is no plan to increase taxes in the upcoming budget, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said.
Newsbook says the Malta International Airport has registered a drop of 69.4% in passengers in August 2020 when compared to the same month in 2019. A total of 252,022 passengers arrived at the Malta International Airport in August 2020.
ONE News reports the government will be providing financial aid which will amount to €720,000 to tuna fishermen, which the pandemic left a negative impact on.
NET News says a group of five engineers who graduated from MCAST presented a protest at the Civil Courts against the government after not being allowed to practice their skill after not being presented with their warrant.
Updated 1245 – 63 new cases of coronavirus in Malta
After a couple of weeks where coronavirus cases appeared to be slowly going down, Health authorities reported a significant increase of 63 cases over the past 24 hours. This is the highest increase for the past three weeks and resulted from 2,044 swab tests.
Active cases have gone up again, to 388.
The Times of Malta reported that Malta’s total number of cases per 100,000 population is 79.8, the fifth-highest in the EU, according to the European Centre of Disease Control’s daily list.
Updated 1120 – Government launches Pre-Budget Document
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has this morning launched Government’s Pre-Budget Document.
Ruling out new taxes, Scicluna said, when introducing the document, that the budgetary measures will be governed by five principles on which the
Government’s economic vision rests: “For the medium term, we need to strike a balance between health and economic well being. We need to implement measures which safeguard public health, jobs and the economy.”
The background on which we are building this year’s budget is not the normal scenario, and this is the time for the government and civil society alike to show its ability to deal with a crisis,” Scicluna said today.
“This government started working from day one on this as it did not want to see any deficits and debt which would close off any possibilities when a crisis hit. We were criticised for all the talk about surplus but now people can see the result of all this”, added Scicluna, who also said that 2021 will also see Government in the red.
Updated 1050 – Fenech demands investigation into mobile phone leaks
Yorgen Fenech and his family called on Police Commissioner to investigate leaks of messages from his mobile phone. Fenech, who stands accused of masterminding Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, is seeking a criminal investigation on these leaks as well as on the use of his seized phone to make calls.
Updated 0911 – Newspaper Review
Malta Today reports on the situation aboard the Maersk Etienne after the crew rescued a group of 27 migrants including a child and a pregnant woman more than a month ago. Migrants said they are desperate to come off the vessel.
The Times speaks to the Danish acting minister for immigration who disagreed with claims by Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela that the migrants stranded on the Etienne oil tanker are Denmark’s responsibility, pointing instead to Tunisia.
The Independent says that respects flowed in for popular family doctor Lawrence Fenech, who became Malta’s latest Covid-19 victim last week. President George Vella, himself a doctor, also paid a tribute to Dr Fenech.
L-Orizzont says that hospitals in Malta are preparing well for the possibility of widespread cases of Post-Covid Syndrome, leading to new health conditions in patients who recovered from the coronavirus.
In-Nazzjon says that there have been 10 deaths in the last 30 months at the Corradino Correctional Facility. On Monday, Nazzareno Mifsud committed suicide while he was in the process of being extradited to the US over charges of paedophilia.
The Independent speaks to the president of the Association of Parents of State School Students, Glorainne Borg, who insisted that they should be consulted by the education ministry about Covid-19 protocols.
L-Orizzont says that the General Workers Union held discussions with the government to raise concerns about companies that are pressuring employees who contract Covid-19 to switch to sick leave from quarantine leave.
The Times reports that neighbours of 95-year-old Inez Galea, who was killed by a pair of pit bulls on Monday, had previously complained about the conditions in which the dogs were being kept by the victim’s nephew, a pit bull breeder.
In-Nazzjon says that the nephew of Inez Galea, who died in a pit bull attack on Monday, lived side-by-side with his grandmother and he keeps many dogs in the house. Animal welfare inspectors visited the property earlier this year and found no sign of animal mistreatment.
Malta Today quotes a Europol report showing that match-fixing is being increasingly used by crime organisations to launder money. The findings say that football, particularly at lower levels, is the most targeted sport by launderers because of its popularity.
Morning Briefing
Victoria Buttigieg appointed Advocate-General
State Advocate Victoria Buttigieg has been chosen to be appointed Malta’s Attorney General to replace Peter Grech, who announced his resignation earlier this Summer.
In a statement, the government said that this is the first time that a new Attorney General is being appointed after the duties of the office were separated in two, when Buttigieg was chosen as the first State Advocate.
PN leader Adrian Delia welcomed this appointment, but Shadow Minister for Justice, Jason Azzopardi, recalled that Buttigieg, then assistant attorney-general, was involved in giving advice when the Electrogas power station contract was being drafted.
Prime Minister Robert Abela described Buttigieg, who will be the first women AG in Malta, as a person of “integrity” who has the “competence to carry out important duties”.
Covid-19 in Malta
The health authorities reported 23 new cases of coronavirus in Malta during the past 24 hours. 39 persons have recovered, bringing the number of active cases down again to 356.
The total number of persons who were at one point or another infected has now reached one short of 2,100. 1,364 swabs were takenthe authorities said in their daily update.
In a homily made during the celebration of a Pontifical Mass on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, Archbishop Charles Scicluna appealed to the public to ensure that everyone played their part to defeat the “invisible enemy” that is the Covid-19 pandemic by following the directions of the health authorities.
Marsa junction project to be delayed because of Covid-19 cases
A number of workers at the Marsa junction project site have been infected with COVID-19, Infrastructure Malta said yesterday. The discovery may result in delays to the large-scale roads project, the agency noted
but did not disclose the precise number of infected workers.
The state agency added that it had initiated discussions with the contractor to define ways to limit to potential impact on the works, which have now reached their final stage. The project, costing some €70 million, is still to see three new flyovers and a number of lanes. Their opening will be postponed for a few weeks.
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