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After Bormla Walk Footage, Prime Minister Says It’s Legal To Remove Mask Temporarily During Physical Activity

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Footage has emerged of Robert Abela walking along the Bormla front without a mask, but the Prime Minister has said he was acting in line with the legal notice regulating mask-wearing.

Lovin Malta received footage of the Prime Minister walking along the picturesque promenade last Friday night, the day Malta’s new mandatory mask-wearing laws started being enforced. He broke out jogging shortly after this footage was taken.

“The Prime Minister was carrying out physical activity (jog and walk) where in terms of the applicable legal notice, the temporary removal of a face-mask is permissible,” the government’s communications office told Lovin Malta. “The face-mask was put back on immediately when the physical activity finished.”

Malta’s new mandatory mask-wearing rules, which started being enforced last Friday, do indeed make exceptions for “high intensity physical activity”, but there is widespread confusion about what this actually means. 

A warden yesterday fined a group of people for training without a mask in Sliema, citing an email from Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci which said the physical activity exception only applies to jogging and cycling.

One of the people who got fined warned that officials are “hunting” people, fining a runner for not putting his mask on when stopping to cross the road and even fining children for playing in the playground without masks.

Lovin Malta has reached out to Health Minister Chris Fearne to clarify exactly what kind of physical activity can be carried out without a mask and whether people now need to wear a mask when exercising at the gym.

What do you make of Malta’s new mask rules?

READ NEXT: ‘We’re Frontliners Too’: Maltese Lawyer Calls For More Respect After COVID-19 Case At Court 

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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