The announcement comes a day after the Nationalist Party called on the government to extend the wage supplement till the end of March, with Dalli saying that the government would act in the same way it had last year, and would extend the programme as required. 

The minister noted that the government had so far invested €653 million in wage supplements to around 105,000 employees across 17,500 businesses. 

Malta is currently going through its largest ever surge in COVID-19 cases which has seen many in the hospitality and catering industries take a hit at a time when they were counting on business to be booming. 

The large spike in active cases has also seen thousands of people placed in mandatory quarantine, causing havoc to many businesses across the country, who have been left without enough people to operate. 

The Nationalist Party, Chamber of Commerce and Malta Association for Public Health Medicine have all called for a relaxing of quarantine rules. 

Asked whether this was being considered by the government, Dalli said that talks were underway with the health authorities while appealing to the public to take the COVID-19 vaccine booster shot. 

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