Updated 1745- News Portal Briefing
Times of Malta reports that Superintendent of public health held a briefing amid spike in cases
MaltaToday reports that Gavin Gulia is the second Labour Party candidate to submit his nomination for the casual election to fill the 7th District seat vacated by Edward Scicluna.
Newsbook reports that KSU launched the Your FuturEU campaign
TVM reports that care home residents have started to receive the Covid-19 vaccine
Updated 1232 – Covid-19 update
Health authorities reported 191 new cases of coronavirus over the past 24 hours, resulting from 3,639 swab tests. The number of active cases has gone up to 2047 after 77 persons recovered.
Malta’s death toll stands at 230 after two persons died in the past 24 hours.
In her weekly briefing, Prof Charmaine Gauci said that 162 persons are currently hospitalised. She also announced that persons over 85 year old will start to receive the vaccine next week.
Updated 1113 – MEA calls on government, MUT to resolve impasse
The Malta Employers’ Association has called on the Government and the MUT to seek an immediate resolution to the current dispute which is depriving children of education, and which is also creating hardships for companies and parents who had to reschedule their work commitments without notice.
The Association stated that the main culprit of the current impasse is lack of dialogue between the parties which should have planned in advance for an expected surge in COVID cases following the festive season, rather than throwing such matters on the table just before schools were scheduled to
open.
Updated 1105 – Unemployment at 4.8%
The seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate for November 2020 reached 4.8 per cent, up by 0.1 percentage points when compared to the previous month, the NSO said today.
The unemployment rate during November 2020 for persons aged 15 to 24 years (youth unemployment rate) was 11.4 per cent while the rate for those between 25 and 74 years stood at 4.0 per cent. During November 2020, the number of unemployed persons was 13,081 with the unemployed males and the 25 to 74 age group being the major contributors to the overall level of unemployment.
The seasonally adjusted number of unemployed youths amounted to 3,365, whereas those aged between 25 and 74 stood at 9,716.
Updated 1040 – Minister of Education says teachers resisted shift to online schooling
Timesofmalta.com reports that according to Education Minister Justyne Caruana state schools have not yet shifted online because of teachers’ resistance.
State school teachers are currently in the second day of strike refusing to return to school because of an increase in Covid-19 cases. Caruana insisted that government has an online system known as teleskola and has additionally set up a virtual school.
Updated 0900 – Parents express concern
The Maltese Association of Parents of State School Students expressed concern that despite “various assurances” by the Education Ministry that the system was in place for teaching to shift online overnight should the need arise, they were suddenly being told that the online system was not up to scratch.
The association insisted that all stakeholders should work together “to ensure a win-win situation and to respect the fundamental right of education for children”.
Updated 0830 – Newspaper Review
The Independent speaks to the president of the teachers’ union Marco Bonnici who said that, besides union members, the directives protect students and their families as the number of Covid-19 cases have risen sharply.
The Times reports on confusion at schools as some students showed up after the Christmas recess to find that teachers were on strike. Talks between the union of teachers and the government are set to continue today.
In-Nazzjon says that talks between the teachers’ union and government on Thursday stalled but will resume this morning while the directive remains in place. Education Minister Justyne Caruana ordered schools to open, nevertheless.
L-Orizzont speaks to a teacher who reported for work in class in spite of the strike ordered by the union of teachers. The primary school teacher said that she felt she had a responsibility towards students to show up for lessons.
In-Nazzjon says that active Covid-19 infections jumped to more than 1,900 after 164 new cases were recorded on Thursday. Meanwhile, a 74 year old patient died at Mater Dei hospital, becoming the 228th victim of the pandemic.
L-Orizzont quotes Chamber of SMEs CEO Abigail Mamo who said that businesses are generally satisfied with sales over the festive season. The Chamber is conducting a detailed survey about business performance in 2020.
The Independent picks up a tweet by an aide to US President Trump who said that although he disagrees with the official outcome of the election, he will make sure of a smooth transition which will see Joe Biden taking the oath of office on January 20.
The Times follows the certification of the US Electoral College results in Congress on Thursday, officially declaring Joe Biden President-elect after winning the November election against incumbent Donald Trump.
Morning Briefing
Teachers strike to continue today
No agreement was reached yesterday evening during a meeting between Prime Minister Robert Abela, Education Minister Justyne Caruana and representatives of the Teachers’ Union, MUT at the Office of the Prime Minister. The stakeholders sought to reach an agreement on the way forward on the reopening of Government schools after the recent spike of coronavirus cases.
TVM has reported that the Superintendent of Public Health, Professor Charmaine Gauci, was also be present at the meeting, with an update on the current situation of COVID. Despite the failure to reach an agreement, it is expected that talks will continue this morning.
Chamber of Commerce backs authorities on schooling
The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said that keeping schools closed will “have long-lasting impacts on the students”, adding that “the experience of the first term has proved that schools are well equipped to implement social distancing, and the educational experience was a success.”
Noting that health authorities sad there is no scientific-based evidence which shows that schools should remain closed or be shifted to obligatory virtual schooling, the Chamber added that “this will wreak havoc not only for schools and teachers themselves but more importantly, it will have long-lasting impacts on the students due to a lack of interaction with their peers and the continued pressure on working parents to stay at home leaving some economic sectors without their essential human resources at a time when the economy can least afford more interruptions.”
Political parties take sides on strike issue
Education Minister Justyne Caruana criticised the MUT for the short notice they gave for their demands to be met, arguing that parents were left wondering what to do with their children just hours before schools were expected to return. “The MUT decided to go ahead with its industrial action just a few hours before the school doors were supposed to open, and so one can appreciate the concerns that arose for us to see what could be done with the children in the context of working parents who could not make arrangements in the few hours they had,” she noted.
On the other hand, PN education spokesperson Clyde Puli described the MUT’s demands as being “reasonable”, while berating the government for displaying a large degree of hard-headedness and lack of transparency. “We find ourselves in this situation because of circumstances that we have no control over like the pandemic, but also because of the hard-headedness shown by the government and lack of transparency from its end,” he said.
Covid-19 Update
164 new COVID-19 cases were reported by the Health Ministry on Thursday, with 73 recovering. These were identified from 2806 swabs. 1935 cases remain active.
A 74-year-old COVID-19 patient became Malta’s 228th fatality in Malta. The man had tested positive on the 20th December and passed away early this morning.
CDE News
