Chris Fearne’s handling of coronavirus crisis earns him top marks

Chris Fearne’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has earned him top marks across the board with 91.4% giving him a high score in a MaltaToday survey. 

The high marks for the Health Minister’s performance since the pandemic broke out are reflected across all age groups, all regions and across the political divide. 

Fearne’s approval rating ranks high among 93.4% of women, 89.5% of men, 89.8% of those aged between 18 and 35, and a staggering 95.6% of those aged 65 and over. 

People were asked to rank Fearne’s performance on a scale of one to 10. The results were grouped into three categories: low (scores between 1 and 3), medium (4-7) and high (8-10). 

Fearne achieved a majority high score across all regions, with his best performance being in the Western region with 94.2% giving him a high score and his ‘worst’ being in Gozo where 80.2% gave him high marks. 

The Deputy Prime Minister received high marks from Nationalist and Labourite voters alike – 86.2% of PN voters gave Fearne a high score and 96.4% of PL voters did likewise. 

Fearne, a paediatric surgeon by profession, has been health minister since 2016, having been parliamentary secretary for two years prior to that. 

Last January, he lost the Labour Party leadership race to Robert Abela but the period of estrangement soon ended a month later when the pandemic started rearing its head closer to home. 

Fearne captained the health service as it scaled up its preparedness for the crisis. Malta’s first case of COVID-19 was registered on 7 March and since then the number of hospital beds to treat coronavirus patients, including ITU facilities, have increased rapidly, and restrictive measures to curb the virus spread introduced gradually.