Gauci gives further vaccine details as COVID-19 death toll passes 200
Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci has delivered her weekly update on COVID-19, the last before Christmas and days ahead of first doses of a vaccine arriving in Malta.
On Wednesday, Malta’s COVID-19 death toll reached 201 as five new deaths were recorded. However, the number of daily cases continues to decrease with 82 new COVID-19 patients recorded from 2,609 tests.
“Let us keep working to keep this rate low,” Gauci said. “We are seeing abroad the cases increasing and those going to hospital too – so we must continue all this work we are doing together so that the numbers remain low.”
Outdoor art gallery opened on Marsa-Ħamrun bypass
A new art space at a lay-by on the Marsa-Ħamrun bypass was inaugurated on Wednesday, featuring artwork created by MCAST students and staff.
The area is Malta’s first outdoor exhibition space and follows along the recently installed 350-metre vertical garden covering the retaining walls of the southbound carriageway on the seven-lane bypass.
It features ten large square frames which currently hold works created by students and lecturers at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology. Artwork will be changed every six months, with the plan being to eventually open the space up to other local and foreign artists for exhibition as well.
The first collection for the gallery was steered forward by art lecturers Carmen Aquilina, Pierre Mifsud and Darren Tanti, who developed the concept with Infrastructure Malta.
Inspired by the adjacent green walls surrounding the space, the artists were inspired by the effort to reintroduce nature to an urban environment.
Updated 1240 – Covid-19 Update
Covid-19 fatalities have exceeded the grim milestone of 200 deaths after five more were announced today, taking the tally to 201. There were 82 new COVID-19 cases recorded from 2,609 tests, with Prof Charmaine Gauci noting in a press conference that the rate of increase is now slower than the one registered earlier this month.
132 persons have recovered. 55 persons are currently being recovered in a hospital, 10 of them receiving intensive care.
Updated 1211 – GWU reacts to Malta Air redundancies
The General Workers’ Union strongly denied a declaration by Malta Air, saying that it is “morally convinced” that given the events of the past few days, Malta Air never wanted to reach an agreement on the fate of 40 of their cabin crew members in the first place.
Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air had announced that it would be making 40 cabin crew members redundant as of 1 January 2021, saying that the General Workers’ Union had failed to deliver an emergency agreement which had already been agreed upon.
Updated 0924 – Doctors call for complete UK flight ban
The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) has called on Government to completely block travel from the UK.
“The advice we would give as MAM is to repeat the protocols used for repatriation flights that were organised back in March of this year,” the union’s president, Martin Balzan, said.
So far, Maltese nationals and residents are allowed to fly from Britain to Malta, with strict protocols on arrival including multiple tests and a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Updated 0900 – Newspaper Review
The Times reports that 40 cabin crew at Malta Air, a Ryanair subsidiary, are being discharged from January 1. A spokesperson for the carrier said that the General Workers Union representing employees failed to deliver an emergency agreement.
L-Orizzont leads with a statement by the General Workers Union rejecting claims by Malta Air that it did not deliver on an emergency agreement. The union said that it had proposed a number of alternatives, none of which were accepted by the airline.
The Independent says that General Workers Union and Malta Air could not reach a deal on an emergency agreement for employees, resulting in the termination of 40 cabin crew with effect from New Year’s Day.
Malta Today speaks to Opposition Leader Bernard Grech who said that the Prime Minister lacked the courage to suspend Parliamentary Secretary Rosianne Cutajar until investigations into allegations against her are concluded.
In-Nazzjon quotes PN Leader Bernard Grech who said that the Prime Minister’s inaction on the case involving junior minister Rosianne Cutajar shows that Cabinet members can still walk away with impunity.
The Times quotes the Medical Association which is urging the government to impose a total ban on flights from the UK. Currently, citizens and residents are being allowed in from the UK and have to quarantine for 14 days.
The Independent reports that the FBI has released new information about the Lockerbie aircraft explosion of 1988 which says that the Libyan man accused of manufacturing the bomb had travelled to Malta.
In-Nazzjon reports that the PN’s women wing presented gifts to Dar Merħba Bik which welcomes victims of domestic abuse. The delegation was led by party leader Bernard Grech who said that abuse can no longer be accepted by society.
L-Orizzont quotes the head of the BioNTech laboratory in Germany who said that the Covid-19 vaccine developed in collaboration with Pfizer is effective against the new strain of the virus because it uses the same spike protein.
Morning Briefing
Former Labour Secretary-General denies corruption charges
Jimmy Magro, Labour’s former Secretary General, pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption with regard to a €250,000 public waste procurement tender issued by the Local Councils Association. The project was related to the the acquisition of an electromechanical compost machine for the processing of domestic organic waste.
Magro was special consultant to the association, with a special focus on EU funded projects, also sitting on the board that was to select the winning bidder on the tender.
The case was triggered after one of the bidders had alleged that Magro sought money to secure the tender for the said bidder.
40 Malta Air crew members to lose their job
It will hardly be a Happy New Year for 40 crew members of the Malta Air airline – a Ryanair subsidiary – after the airline said that the General Workers Union did not present the emergency agreement reached last Thursday.
The company added that the emergency agreement provides, among others, for what it described as a modest reduction in salaries, leading to a guaranteed minimum salary. Malta Air, a subsidiary of the Ryanair group, stated that it is currently operating only 10% of its capacity due to Covid-19 and has kept in employment all the cabin crew it employed before the crisis emergence. The emergency agreement has been agreed with the airline’s pilots, it said.
Unemployment edges up in Summer
Malta’s unemployment rate continued to increase during Summer, according to the NSO’s Labour Force Survey, reaching 4.6% – or approxiamately 12,589 people.
The latest edition of the LFS, which covers Q3 indicates that the unemployment rate has continued to rise in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic: the rate had been 4.4% in the second quarter and 3.3% in the first.
Covid-19 Update
The Health Department reported 108 new cases of coronavirus in the previous 24 hours, with 46 recovering. The number of active cases has reached 1553. 2788 swab tests were carried out in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths linked to Covid-19 has reached 196.
CDE News
