As more and more countries are moving towards making the wearing of masks in public mandatory, Malta’s stock of masks has just increased by 20,000.

Malta-based investment migration platform CiviQuo has teamed up with Fenech business incubator UNIQORN to purchase 40,000 surgical masks from Chinese company Vara Home and donate them to Malta and France.

CiviQuo handed over its stock of 20,000 masks to the Malta Chamber of SMEs, who handed them to Mater Dei.

Karl Farrugia, head of the hospital’s Central Procurement and Supplies Unit, said the masks will be used in conjunction with eye visors that are currently being made at a Żabbar school to provide enhanced protection to nurses and ancillary staff.

“We are very grateful to CiviQuo and their international partners, UNIQORN and Vara Home, for donating these urgently needed surgical masks,” he said.

While Mater Dei’s stuff will undoubtedly be pleased with this donation, the question still remains as to whether Malta will oblige people to wear masks in public.

Health authorities had advised against it at the start of the crisis but the situation has developed rapidly worldwide and a number of countries, including Austria, Germany and Indonesia, as well as the Italian region of Lombardy, have decided to make the wearing of masks in public mandatory.

Malta’s Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci has said the health authorities are so far abiding by the World Health Organisation’s recommendations for masks to be worn by healthcare workers and sick people but are analysing the effectiveness of mandatory mask wearing measures in other countries.

Should it be mandatory to wear a mask in public in Malta?