LOCAL NEWS
Press Conference by Health Superintendent (3rd April 1230 hrs)
In her daily briefing, Health Superintendent Prof Charmaine Gauci announced that 749 swabs were carried out in the past 24 hours resulting in seven positive cases. Malta’s count has now reached 202 cases.
One of the new cases concerns an Italian women who lives in Malta and who was due to give birth shortly. Prof Gauci indicated that only one person remains hospitalised at ITU. Of the new cases, who are all in a good clinical condition, four relate to travel while three concern local cases.
With regard to travel-related cases, the concern Maltese persons who either live or returned from the United Kingdom. These include two persons who used the UK as connection after traveling to Australia and a cruise respectively. The local cases include a Maltese woman who works on the same shift of the Lidl worker tested positive earlier this week, a Nigerian who lives at the Hal Far open centre and the Italian woman referred to above.
Prof Gauci thanked the Chamber of Commerce for its support in ensuring that outlets such as supermarkets improve physical distancing to avoid unnecessary exposure and also commit further resources to reduce the amount of people present at the same time, including through deliveries.
Inspections on quarantine and outlet closures
18 persons were each fined €100 during the rounds Police conducted in the last 24 hours to ensure no gatherings exceeding 3 persons take place anywhere in public places, as per the legal notice issued by Government. Meanwhile 10 persons have been caught breaking quarantine during the 440 inspections carried out by Police, together with the Department of Health and Civil Protection, on those under obligatory quarantine. These 10 persons have each been fined €3,000.
65 fines have been issued from when inspections started. Food and drinks establishments continued to follow the regulations for their closure, so that the spread of coronavirus be contained. Yesterday, more than 720 inspections in 27 localities in Malta, and a further 160 inspections in 11 localities in Gozo were carried out. No infringements have been found.
MEDIA COVERAGE
Timesofmalta.com
European Commission approves €350m state aid scheme for Malta
The European Commission has approved a Maltese state aid scheme to support the economy in the context of the coronavirus outbreak.
The scheme was approved under the State aid temporary framework to support the economy in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “This €350 million Maltese scheme will enable public guarantees on loans to support the Maltese economy during the coronavirus outbreak. It will help businesses cover immediate working capital needs and continue their activities in these difficult times. We continue working closely with Member states to ensure that national support measures can be put in place in a timely, coordinated and effective way, in line with EU rules.”
Maltatoday
Edward Scicluna justifies government’s cautious approach on aid package
Saving jobs is government’s priority but the country needs to retain reserves because no one knows how long the coronavirus pandemic will last, Edward Scicluna said.
The Finance Minister said the uncertainty over the length of this crisis was the reason why government was not spending more as requested by employer organisations.
The government unveiled a generous aid package a fortnight ago that would finance the wages of employees in certain sectors at €800 per month per employee. However, the measure covered a range of companies that collectively employed some 60,000 workers.
The additional consumption could cause these consumers to lose their 25% in eco- reduction perk. The Finance Minister said the country’s funds are being directed towards two goals – ensuring the safeguarding of jobs, and making certain that businesses have enough liquidity and cash flow to survive.
“The first aim is to protect jobs so employees will remain on the company’s payroll instead of becoming unemployed, which means that once all this is over, they will not need to enter the job market looking for work,” he said.
Newsbook
“Uncertainty is our biggest challenge – but we’ll come out stronger” – Fabio Axisa
The biggest questions facing businesses right now is how long this situation will take and how will things stand after the dust settles”. Fabio Axisa, President of the Malta Institute of Accountants, which groups together some 3,500 professionals in the sector, was speaking during Newsbook hour on 103 FM about the challenges brought around by the COVID-19 crisis.
Axisa argued that although most of the talk was about the direct impact faced by those that had to completely shutdown their operations such as hotels and restaurants, one had to keep in mind that these businesses required the services of accountants, architects, notaries and so forth. With the hardest-hit entities seeking to cut costs in a drastic manner, these professionals were now feeling the impact of such decisions. Fabio Axisa admitted that it was reasonable that the first set of assistance had to be directed at those entities which were forced to a complete shutdown in view of the restrictions imposed, but he called on to the authorities to assist those sectors and professionals whose work took a significant hit in view of these developments.
Printed
The Times says that mixed waste collected in black bags is being landfilled at Magħtab by WasteServ. The waste management company said that it is no longer mechanically treating waste to avoid exposing employees to risk during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The Independent speaks to statistician Vincent Marmara who said that Malta currently ranks 34th in the world in the rate of coronavirus reproduction, with 444 cases per million registered by Thursday.
L-Orizzont speaks to Gozo Channel chairman Joe Cordina who said that the ban on leisure travel between Malta and Gozo coming effect today is a precautionary measure that will help contain the spread of coronavirus. L-Orizzont carries an interview with a man who contracted Covid-19. Nick Haslop describes how he spent five days “battling death” and says that people must be aware of the suffering the virus causes.
The Times reports that the government Ornis committee will recommend the opening of the Spring hunting season for quail. If the decision is approved by the minister, hunters will be allowed to hunt from two hours before sunrise to noon for 21 days.
Editorials
The Times of Malta describes as disgraceful the decision taken by the Ornis committee to allow Spring hunting to take place. While people have been prohibited from visiting their loved ones, Church activities and feasts have been cancelled and major businesses shut down, it made no sense that hunting is allowed. The Editor describes this decision as lack of common decency, particularly due to the fact that enforcement will be harder with the limited resources currently available.
The Independent shares the same sentiment, insisting that ‘we are all supposedly equal’. The Editor argues that enforcement with regard to hunting was always inadequate, but with police authorities focusing their efforts at ensuring compliance with COVID-19 quarantine restrictions would be significantly harder. Although the Editor insists there are sufficient reasons to cancel this year’s hunting season, not much hope exists in view of history and experience.
L-Orizzont describes the recent spate of price increases for essential product as absolutely unacceptable at this time where many people were suffering and the economy was in dire straits. The Editor calls on the authorities to investigate and to take the necessary action in this regard on the example given by other countries.
In-Nazzjon celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which is a timely reminder of the challenges the world is going through, as people are losing their lives, their loved ones, their jobs or their homes around the world. At the same time, Our Lady should provide inspiration for us not to give up during these enduring times.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Half the world’s population under imposed lockdown
More than 3.9 billion people, or half of the world’s population, have now been asked or ordered to stay at home by their governments to prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus. Euronews refers to data from an AFP database collated compulsory or recommended confinements, curfews and quarantines in more than 90 countries or territories.
Due to the introduction of a curfew in Thailand (effective from Friday), the threshold of 50% of humanity will be reached. India, China, France, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, and the UK have implemented the world’s largest and most restrictive mass quarantines.
Global cost of coronavirus could top $4 trillion – Asian Development Bank
The coronavirus pandemic could cost the global economy $4.1 trillion as it ravages United States, Europe and other major economies, the Asian Development Bank warned on Friday
The estimated impact is equivalent to nearly five percent of worldwide output based on a range of scenarios, but the lender said losses from “the worst pandemic in a century” could be higher.
“The estimated impact could be an underestimate, as additional channels such as… possible social and financial crises, and long-term effects on health care and education are excluded from the analysis,” the ADB said.
EU Corner
European Parliament offers its Brussels building to fight COVID-19
The European Parliament has offered the Brussels regional authorities to make available a building and a fleet of cars and lorries to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
In a tweet, parliament president David Sassoli said: “Our strength is our solidarity. As the European Parliament, we wanted to set a small example: we provided the Brussels authorities with one of our buildings to be used for patient care, as well as 100 vehicles. We are ready to do the same with our Luxembourg and Strasbourg offices.”
Talks underway over possible EU border closure extension
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that talks were underway among European Union member states over whether or not to extend border closures beyond Easter in order to tackle the coronavirus crisis.
“We are in consultation with member states on how to proceed beyond Easter,” she told Europe 1 radio.
Von Der Leyen also reiterated that the next EU budget should take the form of a new “Marshall Plan” to drive Europe’s recovery from the coronavirus outbreak, and that she felt Europe would emerge from the coronavirus crisis in a stronger state.
The EU executive plans to present to the Eurogroup on 7 April a proposal to create a mechanism to top up national unemployment benefits, as EU sources confirmed to EURACTIV.
More News:
For a Fact-Checked Aggregated Service of CoVid-19 related information, please visit: https://corporatedispatch.com/category/coronavirus/
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