Malta will allow people to visit their elderly relatives at old people’s homes as of Monday but under strict conditions, such as that visits cannot exceed 15 minutes and must take place behind a perspex or glass partition.

These are the conditions in full for government, Church and private residential facilities, as announced this morning by Family Minister Michael Falzon and Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly Silvio Parnis:

-The elderly home must identify a zone to serve as a visiting area where residents and relatives will be separated by a perspex or glass partition

-All visits will be scheduled by an appointment system. Visitors should phone the residential facility in order to schedule an appointment

-A maximum of four visitors will be allowed during each visit. Each resident will be given a prearranged time of fifteen minutes each.

-Once the first resident would have exhausted the fifteen minute time slot, he/she should leave the visiting areas, and the other resident would be allowed to visit his/her loved one. These visitors will be admitted following the necessary sanitisation measures;

-The visiting times are to be scheduled by respective homes and communicated to the Social Care Standards Authority

-All visitors should wear a mask or visor at all times during the visit

-During these visiting times, employees of the residential homes are to keep the identified areas available