PN MPs 'unanimously' deny asking Health Minister to jump COVID-19 vaccine queue

The Nationalist Party parliamentary group has denied allegations made by Health Minister Chris Fearne in parliament on Tuesday that a member asked him to jump the COVID-19 vaccine queue.

"The PN parliamentary group unanimously and categorically denies the allegations stated by Minister Fearne. Once again, the government chooses to use the pandemic, and the record number of cases, to score political points in order to try and weaken the Opposition,” the party said. 

In an exchange in parliament yesterday evening, Fearne hit at Opposition leader Bernard Grech’s insinuation that some people were jumping the vaccine queue.

“I do have people asking me to jump the queue, but I always refused… I also had a member of the Opposition parliamentary group asking me to jump the queue and told him off,” Fearne said, refraining from naming the MP.

In a statement on Wednesday, the PN parliamentary group hit back at Prime Minister Robert Abela for raising false hopes with his claim that the country would have recovered from the pandemic by March. Instead, the PN said deaths and infection numbers keep increasing, and contact tracing has failed.

“There is no transparency in the roll-out of the vaccine, and our health system is at the brink of collapse,” the PN said.  

The party said rather than making allegations, the PN stated “facts”, which is why it looks beyond “partisan politics in the interest of the common good and the well-being of the Maltese nation.”

On Tuesday, Malta registered a record of 336 new COVID-19. In response to this, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has requested a meeting with the Prime Minister.

Fearne said new measures and stiffer fines could be implemented in the coming days.