‘Why the double standards?’ Book publisher hits out at lack of COVID restrictions at SiGMA

Chris Gruppetta, director of publishing at Merlin Publishers, has hit out at the ‘double standards’ of health authorities with the regulation of the Malta Book Festival against the lack of restrictions at the SiGMA summit.

On Facebook, Gruppetta pointed out that many COVID-related restrictions were imposed on the book festival-goers by health authorities, only to see no restrictions in place at the same venue a week later.

“The biggest problem is that they both took place at the MFCC, one week apart, with no change in restrictions during that period of time. My problem isn’t with SiGMA, but with the double standards,” he told MaltaToday.  

Attendees at the Malta Book Festival had to wear masks at all times while maintaining social distancing. Meanwhile, many of the festival’s events had to be moved online out of respect to COVID rules.

On the other hand, SiGMA received heavy criticism with their rowdy Europe summit. Over the span of the summit, photos emerged of people without masks crowding together at the venue without respect to social distancing.

Meanwhile, footage circulated of a man stripping down to his underwear, while a party held at Paceville’s Sky Club had to be shut down by police over a lack of COVID-19 mitigation measures.

Members of staff and pass-holders at the summit said that the organisers held no checks on whether attendees were in possession of a valid COVID-19 vaccine certificate or negative swab test result.

Events are currently subject to the same standards published by the Superintendence of Public Health. Events are open only to fully vaccinated people aged 12 or over, and permission must be obtained from the Malta Tourism Authority.

Earlier this week, Superintendent Charmaine Gauci stressed to national broadcaster TVM that people should wear masks in public spaces when in groups of more than two persons.

This measure was introduced last July, and has remained in place ever since.