[WATCH] Delay in closing borders caused 20 more cases of coronavirus, PN health spokesperson says

Malta gained nothing except 20 cases of Covid-19 by failing to close its borders upon the emergence of the pandemic, according to the Nationalist Party’s health spokesperson Stephen Spiteri.

"The government closed the borders too late," Spiteri said, insisting that the virus was not just a health issue but a social and political one too.

The PN had been insisting on the closure of Malta’s borders for several weeks before this took place, he lamented.

"Had the government closed the borders earlier... we would have 20 less positive cases… I think closing borders was a decision taken late and which was of no benefit, as we haven’t got any full hotels or any new tourists as a result," he said on Friday.

Drastic measures are needed to prevent the collapse of our healthcare system, Spiteri said.

Partial lockdowns should have happened much earlier in order to protect the elderly, he added. It was worrying to see people still using public transport and working in factories, opining that not enough was being done to stop the pandemic from infecting large numbers of people in Malta.

PN MP Mario Galea warned that the coronavirus pandemic could lead to a spike in suicides and mental health problems. “A crisis intervention team should be set up and man a helpline. This is needed immediately,” he said. “We are in bereavement and have lost our certainty, our comfort zone.”

PN MP Maria Deguara slammed the government, claiming that it was failing to provide sufficient personal protective equipment to many doctors. Private doctors who were recently drafted in to help bolster overworked hospital doctors were not trained or given adequate safety equipment, she said. To add insult to injury, these draftee doctors were being given half the pay of government doctors doing the same work, Deguara alleged.

She also decried the lack of PPE at local health centres. Surgical masks and rubber gloves rinsed in surgical spirit are what many staff members were using, she said. Health centres must no longer be walk-in clinics, as people are queuing outside in close proximity to each other, Deguara argued, adding that an appointment system must be adopted instead.