Looking back at 2020 | Coronavirus, a changed Malta, and a tale of two waves

If there was one day which captured the collective spirit of the nation as it struggled against the virus, it was the collective display of appreciation for front-liners on 17 March, when thousands took to their balconies to applaud doctors and nurses keeping the country safe, during the weeks of partial lockdown.

Despite a spike in cases and deaths since the start of a deadly second wave in mid-August, the resilience and efficiency of the Maltese national health service remained a constant all through a challenging year. It was a reminder that after decades of neoliberal orthodoxy, efficiency and public ownership were not antithetical. Indeed, never before has the spirit of public service and nationalised services proven more crucial.

One clear sign of this was that Malta boasted the third largest number of swabs in the EU, and one of the highest in the world. During the first wave of COVID as more people were swabbed, more infected people were isolated thanks to contact-tracing. Malta appeared close to becoming COVID-free by mid-July when only three active cases were recorded.

Insulated from the world and all places of entertainment shut down, Malta could practice an effective strategy.

For Dr Chris Barbara, Malta’s most prominent virologist, Malta’s high rate of swab tests was the key to Malta’s successful containment of the disease during the first wave. “The more swabs you take today, the more infected people you detect and isolate from the community. This is why swabbing is not a statistical census to measure the people infected by COVID-19 but an effective tool in reducing numbers. For the more people you swab now, the less cases of COVID-19 you will have in the next weeks, simply because you would have removed more infected fish from the pool, which would otherwise have infected more fish.”

Strong leadership during a crisis

Malta’s compliance and resilience during the first wave came in the wake of strong leadership, with the government and health authorities sending a clear message to the population to practice social distancing and for the elderly to stay put in lockdown.

Daily briefs by Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci, united the nation in a common sense of purpose while health workers were saluted from balconies in a collective show of appreciation.

In the words of paediatrician Simon Attard Montalto, Malta was hailed as the ‘best model’ in pandemic management, “with a strict policy of track-trace-and-isolate cases”. This was made possible thanks to the support given to the health authorities which “efficiently and effectively mobilised front-liners including the police, and a frightened but compliant population”. This formula worked, “bringing the local pandemic under tight control within a two-month period”.

A MaltaToday survey showed Robert Abela getting a record trust rating of 62% in April. The government reaped the fruits of an effective health strategy, which has not only contained infection rates but also paved the way for an incremental lifting of measures. Reality vindicated the government’s choice not to go for a total lockdown as initially proposed by the Opposition, which at first was shooting from the hip before rallying behind a national consensus informed by expert opinion.

Health minister 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. Abela’s more optimistic tone also struck a chord not just with business lobbies but also with a working-class constituency which, unsheltered by domestic comforts, was just as eager to return back to normality in its daily struggle to make ends meet.

Restrictions were also imposed and subsequently lifted in an orderly way, with the government rejecting calls for a total lockdown except for over 65s and the closure of shops, bars, restaurants and gyms. These restrictions were accompanied by financial assistance to the worst-hit sectors and a basic income of €800 for those who had lost their job. Moreover, despite the economic cost of lockdown, the country was spared mass layoffs.

The economic cost

Unlike the rest of the Eurozone, Malta’s economy remained with its head above the water in the first three months despite COVID-19’s shock impact. Figures released by the National Statistics Office showed how the economy grew by 0.5% in the first quarter. The growth is a far cry from what the country had been experiencing, but given the exceptional circumstances created by the pandemic, it signalled resilience.

When the pandemic reached Malta’s shores in the second week of March, non-essential retail outlets were shut down, schools closed and public gatherings effectively banned. But it was the closure of all overseas travel that had a major impact because it starved the country of important export cash from tourism. The economy stalled, workers were placed on shorter work weeks, some lost their jobs, and many businesses unaffected by forced closures experienced lower incomes.

Government’s first reaction to the economic crisis came on 18 March, when it announced a package made up primarily of tax deferrals and loan guarantees to help maintain business liquidity. The first package was greeted with scepticism. Companies asked for more direct support to help them sustain wages in a situation where income dried up suddenly. Government responded a week later by introducing a wage supplement of €800 per employee per month for the hardest-hit sectors.

Crucially Malta also entered the crisis with a debt-to-GDP ratio of just over 40%, an improvement over the 70% plus debt the country faced in 2013. This allowed the government enough room to manoeuvre comfortably. It enabled the government to present a relatively generous budget in October, one which increases pensions and social benefits, stimulates consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic through vouchers and tax refunds, and retains the wage subsidies which have kept businesses afloat and jobs protected. All this was achieved without imposing any new taxes. With a vaccine on the horizon, it seems that this recipe has worked.

Still government was wary on imposing any burden on categories like hoteliers and developers, who had registered massive profits before COVID and still benefitted from an injection of government subsidies to keep afloat.

Disposable foreigners and nervous natives

The kitty left by Malta’s economic growth in times of plenty saved the island but also exposed Malta’s economic vulnerabilities and inequalities. The empathic public display of solidarity with front-liners in March contrasted with the patriotic display of flags on Easter Sunday, which coincided with loss of life of migrants left stranded in the sea after Malta and Italy closed their ports.

The chasm between disposable and exposed foreigners and increasingly nervous natives has grown. But hundreds of migrant workers were on the frontline: sanitising hospitals, nursing, collecting rubbish, delivering food and driving buses and taxis. Their underpaid work was more indispensable than ever.

Others toiling in sectors like tourism were the first to feel the crunch. And irregular migrants living in open centres or in shared flats were more exposed to the virus due to the sheer impossibility of maintaining social distance.

Despite this contribution to the economy, foreigners were more easily perceived as a threat and possible source of disease. This made the Maltese even more insensitive to the plight of immigrants, who were left at sea as the Maltese government took a hard-line stance with the EU to stop their entry when ports were closed.

Subsequently Abela even tried to blame the spike in cases at the start of the second wave on a number of boat arrivals, which included infected people.

Moreover, the attempt to score political points by pushing the migration button has returned to haunt Abela following the Captain Morgan fiasco which saw him backtrack as the EU refused to negotiate under duress, while immigrants were detained at sea for weeks. Yet any economic recovery will also depend on the contribution of foreign workers, something overlooked by Economy Minister Silvio Schembri who in March had to apologise after saying that if foreigners lose their jobs during the CIVUD-19 crisis, they would have to return home immediately or risk deportation. Even Abela has made a utilitarian distinction between legal workers required for recovery and asylum seekers who are solely to blame for Malta being “full up”.

Onto the second wave

Malta’s orderly management of the first wave contrasted with the more chaotic handling of the second wave.

As summer approached, in a misguided attempt to boost consumer confidence and rescue the tourism industry, Prime Minister Robert Abela dismissed the risk of a second wave with his ill-advised ‘sea waves’ comment. “Waves are only found in the sea, there’s no need to strike up public fear of a second wave,” he said on 17 May.

Yet on that occasion it seemed the strategy had paid off as cases decreased even after the reopening of retail shops, bars, restaurants and the airport. Fears of a second tsunami after the opening the national airport did not materialise, since this was reasonably well controlled. Similarly, although the influx of COVID 19-positive migrants has increased absolute case numbers, this has had no impact on the subsequent dispersal of the virus as all these individuals have been corralled immediately on arrival.

But just as the country had managed to reduce active cases to three, the collective guard was lowered. The rush to reopen the country to tourism and entertainment places, triggered by pressures from the industry itself, has practically undone the sacrifices made in the first three months and put at risk the rest of the economy at risk. Not only were mass gatherings and parties allowed but also rules on the wearing of masks on buses were not even enforced. The stoppage of Gauci’s daily bulletins eliminated an important, non-partisan point of reference. And suddenly the priority shifted from containing the virus to kick-starting the economy: the consequence was a spike in cases. “Unquestionably, it has been mass gatherings ranging from family parties to day-long events that have ensured that the virus has been released into the general population,” paediatrician Attard Montalto wrote.

Things started to spiral out of control in August. As Malta registered what at that time was the highest ever batch of COVID-19 cases – 72 – Robert Abela was at the Marina di Ragusa in Sicily, where he enjoys boating weekends on his personal boat. By the time Malta’s worrying spike hit the news at 12:30pm on Saturday, a video of Abela – a former bodybuilder – exercising in an outdoors spinning class at the marina, was going viral. Some well-wishers also managed to get some snaps with the PM.

Leading paediatrician Simon Attard Montalto denounced Malta’s strategy in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in a strongly worded editorial for the Malta Medical Journal that said Malta had managed then ‘unmanaged’ the pandemic.

Despite the expected and “probably inevitable” second wave of COVID-19, Attard Montalto said that this had been aggravated by the government’s over-eager wind-down, and “over-optimistic sound bites ensuring a false sense of security” and “downright irresponsible actions allowing and even encouraging ‘uncontrolled’ mass events.”

Still – Malta was more prepared to face a second wave; Increased spending on health services and ventilators, meant Malta was now more prepared than in March to meet any escalation of the crisis in winter. Moreover, the much feared re-opening of schools did take place in an orderly fashion with no cases being registered involving child-to-child transmission. Yet while hospitals were not overwhelmed, Malta lost more of its elderly citizens as winter set in.

Enter the grim reaper

A 92-year-old Gozitan woman – Ġorġa Zammit – become the first person to die from the virus on 8 April. Fewer than 20 people died between March and September but deaths have skyrocketed since with the number of deaths surpassing the 100 mark by the middle of November.

In November Malta also saw the death of the youngest victim – popular Qormi mayor Renald Falzon, 46, who died just weeks after his father died from the virus.

Over-65s who made the greatest sacrifices during the first wave were now taking the brunt of a second wave unleashed by partygoers. As the only category forced into total lockdown, they were more prone to mental health issues and loneliness. They also took the brunt in terms of deaths.

COVID-19 weakened the solidarity between the riskier, younger generation and the risk-averse older generations.

The second wave was triggered by mass gatherings attended by younger people, who constituted the bulk of positive cases in August. That ended up threatening residents in old people’s homes who accounted for most cases in September and October.

Moreover, the deaths of elderly people were often coupled with references to ‘underlying conditions’, which perpetuates the cruel perception that COVID-19 mainly only impacts people who would have passed away anyway.

Although Malta continued to register over 100 new cases a day all through Autumn, the situation was stabilised by December, with the authorities once again regaining control of the situation with the public complying to mandatory mask wearing.

Moreover, with a vaccine on the horizon, government did change tack, ordering the closure of bars at the end of October, and extending the ban over the Christmas festivities.

Unlike the United Kingdom, Germany and other European countries, Malta has so far avoided an even more devastating third wave although a post-festive spike may well again test the resilience of the national health system, which has emerged from the crisis as the nation’s pride.