UPDATED 1745: NEWS PORTAL BRIEFING
Times of Malta reports that A 24-year-old repeat offender was remanded in custody on Friday after pleading not guilty to conspiring with another man to set fire to a car owned by his ex-girlfriend’s new partner.
MaltaToday reports that Koħħu’s daughter had approached Joseph Muscat during Christmas greetings at Castille
TVM reports that A 17-year-old girl from Cospicua has been charged with having instilled fear in her mother, harassed and provoked her two days ago
Updated 1330 – Covid-19 update
123 new COVID-19 cases were reported today by health authorities, while 105 persons recovered. The new cases were detected following 3,100 swabs.
Meanwhile, in her weekly briefing, Prof Charmaine Gauci said that survivors of COVID-19 should still get vaccinated because natural immunity from the infection is “low and short-lived” but vaccine immunity is “shown to be stronger and last longer,” Charmaine Gauci has urged.
Updated 0845 – Newspaper Review
The Times says that Malta is expected to receive a first consignment of the Covid-19 vaccine in early January, as the European Medicines Agency has set a December 29 deadline to grant approval following detailed testing.
L-Orizzont leads with a court decision throwing out a libel suit filed by actress and activist Pia Zammit against the paper over the publication of a photo of her in a Nazi theatre costume. The magistrate ruled that the case does not constitute defamation.
The Independent quotes a statement by the Entertainment Industry and Arts Association in reaction to a judgement against a defamation case filed by actress Pia Zammit. The association said the courts failed to differentiate between stage characters and the actors themselves.
In-Nazzjon reports that Covid-19 fatalities rose to 148 by Thursday after the death of another two infected men aged 64 and 74. Both victims were being treated for the disease at Mater Dei hospital.
The Times reports that the European Commission found Malta to be in breach of the Birds Directive with its programme to allow trapping under the pretext of scientific studies. In a statement, the Commission said it wants to stop the loss of biodiversity.
The Independent reports on the extradition of Samir Almiri from Morocco on charges of murder in March, to which he pleaded not guilty. The body of Victor McKeon was found in an advanced state of decomposition in his Santa Luċija.
L-Orizzont quotes General Workers Union secretary general Josef Bugeja who said that the pandemic has brought to the fore issues in the place of work that needed to be addressed. He was speaking at a national conference of employment law.
In-Nazzjon says the Prime Minister is defending Minister Ian Borg despite an admonishment by the courts over the way he had acquired a piece of land in 2014. Robert Abela said he will first wait for the court appeal before taking any position on the case.
Morning Briefing
Vaccine roll-out by early January
Malta is expected to start rolling out the first COVID-19 vaccines by the first week of next year after Europe’s medicines regulator imposed a December 29 deadline to grant its approval. Health Minister Chris Fearne said that thousands of vaccines will be making their way to Malta the day after the Pfizer/Biontech vaccination is given the green light by the European Medicines Agency.
Quotedby Politico during an EU health ministers meeting, Fearne praised the EU’s efforts to jointly procure a coronavirus vaccine, but said it might be helpful for the EMA to “explain to us, and more importantly to the wider European general public”, the reason for the lag in its decision after the UK decided to start disseminating it at once.
Minister Fearne however insisted that the impending vaccinations do not mean that people are to let their guard down or that restrictions will be removed overnight. “We can’t relax the measures at once, the process will take some months, but we’re optimistic we could vaccinate the Maltese population within six months. We’ve started on the road to recovery.”
Malta faces EU action on hunting
The European Commission is once again taking action against Malta over hunting and trapping. In a statement, the Commission called on Malta to “correctly apply the Birds Directive, which requires a general system of protection for wild birds and allows derogations only subject to strict conditions.”
The Commission said that Malta has authorised derogations for the spring hunting of quail every year since 2011 and derogations for autumn live-capturing of song thrush and golden plover each year since 2012. “These derogations fall short systematically of the requirements set out in the legislation, related in particular to poor supervision of the conditions set out in the derogations, which results in other species than those targeted being affected.”
Covid-19 Update
Health authorities reported 96 new cases of coronavirus, with 128 persons recovering. The number of active cases thus decreased to 2034. 2909 swab tests were carried out in the past 24 hours.
Two elderly COVID-19 patients died at Mater Dei Hospital on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said. This brings the COVID-19 death toll in Malta to 148. The men were aged 64 and 74 respectively.
Meanwhile Government said that Malta is not pursuing national emergency authorisation for a COVID-19 vaccination. Reacting to the news that Britain had initiated such process, a spokesperson from the health ministry told Times of Malta that they would not be pursuing a similar route for widespread vaccine roll-out locally.
The authorities will be relying on a final assessment by the European Medicines Agency, which is expected by the end of December, before a vaccine is approved for general use in Malta.
CDE News
