Updated 1745- News Portal Briefing
Latest Update- News Portal Briefing
Times of Malta reports that a Vincent Muscat, one of the three men accused of murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia, on Wednesday withdrew an appeal against a court’s rejection of his pre-trial pleas.
MaltaToday reports that Health Minister Chris Fearne has confirmed that government is paying €1.2 million per year to Steward Healthcare to make use of the Barts Medical School.
Newsbook reports that HSBC Malta will be introducing the much-criticsed Customer Account Fee.
TVM reports that residents and staff at a hotel in Mellieha had to be evacuated due to a fire which broke out at the substation at the back of the hotel.
Updated 1234 – Covid-19 Update
Health authorities reported 199 new cases of coronavirus in Malta, while 89 recovered. These numbers were a result of 3,207 swab tests carried out yesterday, and mean that the number of active cases now stands at 2,425.
The Ministry’s daily report also notes that 55,709 doses of anti-Covid-19 vaccination has been given, with 17,843 being second doses. Meanwhile, a 74 year old male became the virus 298th victim in Malta.
Updated 1130
Half of persons aged 65-74 do not use Internet
While the entire 16 to 24 cohort in Malta used the Internet, the percentage of persons aged 65 to 74 reached less than half. This was revealed by the NSO today, on the basis of a survey on information and communication technology usage, which was partly financed by the European Commission.
Usage in Malta is at par with the EU-27 average.
Results show that internet was mostly used for communication purposes (97.1 per cent) and for the use of entertainment (95.9 per cent).
Almost 64 per cent of internet users made use of e-Government services. In absolute terms, the population accessing e-Government services stood at 219,816. The uptake of this service was more common among individuals aged between 16 and 34 years.
Almost seven out of every ten internet users have ‘basic’ or ‘above basic’ overall digital skills. Persons aged between 16 and 24 years had the highest ‘above basic’ digital skills when compared to the number of persons in the same age bracket. The digital skills areas where a high percentage
of persons resulted to be more fluent in, were ‘information’ and ‘communication’. In this regard, for both areas, over 85 per cent of internet users resulted to have ‘above basic’ knowledge.
Updated 0824 – Newspaper Review
Malta Today reports that a Bill regulating the legal profession is in its second reading in parliament. The legislation proposes to introduce a register for legal professionals holding a warrant and a system of fines to deter breach of ethical conduct.
The Times says that Benna, Malta’s largest dairy products company, resisted a move by the association of sheep and goat herders to obtain EU protection for the traditional ġbejna. The certification would have restricted derivation to milk from local goats.
L-Orizzont quotes a report which says that Malta registered the lowest rate of threats against the LGBTQI community in Europe last year. The study, published by ILGA-Europe, shows that two cases of violence were reported in the first half of 2020.
The Independent says that non-fatal occupational accidents fell by almost 900 last year, compared with over 3,200 cases in 2019. The construction sector and manufacturing accounted for the highest number of accidents.
In-Nazzjon says that junior minister Rosianne Cutajar refused to deny claims that she took a cut of thousands of euros on a property deal involving Yorgen Fenech. Cutajar, however, is insisting that she never did business with Fenech.
The Times reports that a case of the Covid-19 variant first observed in South Africa was detected in Malta during gene sequencing tests. The strain makes the virus more infectious and resistant to the current vaccines.
The Independent quotes the Health Minister who confirmed that over 50 cases of the Covid-19 variant first discovered in the UK have been traced in Malta in recent weeks. Meanwhile, Minister Fearne said the vaccination strategy is going according to plan.
In-Nazzjon quotes opposition spokesperson for health Stephen Spiteri who urged the government to step up the Covid-19 screening efforts, particularly after the first cases of the virus mutations have been discovered.
Malta Today leads with an announcement by Health Minister Chris Fearne who said that educators will start receiving the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the month. People working in the postal, water, and energy sector are next in line to get the jab.
L-Orizzont picks up a study by the Social Science Research Network which finds that vitamin D reduces the risk of mortality in patients with Covid-19 by 60 percent. The report is urging governments to encourage the intake of the vitamin.
Morning Briefing
South African variant found in Malta
Malta has identified a first case of the South African variant of coronavirus, Health Minister Chris Fearne revealed. The variant, is said to spread more easily and is more resistant to vaccination, particularly to the Astra Zeneca jab.
On the other hand, 49 cases of the UK variant have been found.
Fearne said that genetic sequencing used to keep track of these variants has been stepped up to increase monitoring, and that all the positive cases are currently in isolation.
PN Health Shadow Minister Stephen Spiteri appealed to government to implement wider monitoring at the airport and in ports to avoid the importation of the virus as much as possible.
Teachers, other essential workers to get vaccinated
Workers who are in regular contact with a number of other people, such as teachers, will start receiving their invitation to get vaccinated by the end of February or the beginning of March, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne revealed yesterday.
Fearne explained that the “vaccination process is going well, and by Wednesday we will have administered around 55,000 doses and more than 18,000 people will have received the second dose of the vaccines”. This put Malta around three weeks ahead of its original strategy.
Other workers to receive the jab in the next round will also include those in the energy, water, transport and postal sectors.
Parliament debates reforms to legal profession
The introduction of a register of legal professionals is one of the reforms identified in a a bill regulating the legal profession, which has reached its second reading in Parliament yesterday evening. The reforms seek to address a number of points raised by Moneyval in its assessment on Malta.
The Chamber of Advocates, who had pushed hard for a number of reforms, lamented that the bill was a significant departure from the draft presented to them, and that its only aim is to achieve the minimum requirements set out in the Moneyval report.
CDE News
