BREAKING: Quarantine Hotel Rule A Punishment, Not A COVID-19 Measure, Maltese Nurses Union Warns
Malta’s nurses’ union (MUMN) has come out strongly against the rule obliging all travellers from ‘dark red’ countries to quarantine for two weeks inside a hotel.
In a statement, the MUMN warned that the rule imposed by Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci “isn’t a COVID-19 measure but a punishment for going abroad to a [dark] red country”.
“COVID-19 measures of this type are not acceptable since there are constraints in one’s life that travel is not always for pleasure,” they said. “Not to mention that even persons with special needs were not exempt from such punishment which shows how insensitive the authorities have become.”
People travelling to Malta from ‘dark red’ countries are being forced to pay €1,400 for their two-week stay at the Marina Hotel or the ST Sliema Hotel, which only includes bed and breakfast.
Describing this rule as “unacceptable”, the MUMN said it had to intervene when a nurse was locked in one of these hotel rooms for two weeks with his wife and young daughter, without internet and food.
They said even a simple request to warm up some milk for his daughter took two hours to be delivered to his room.
“These measures are a shame on this country and MUMN supports our members and their families and appeals to the Prime Minister to change the legal notice allowing all those who have a residence to quarantine at home,” the union said.
Moreover, MUMN warned that nursing agencies which bring foreign nurses to work in Malta are finding great difficulties in doing so because of this “useless” measure.
“COVID-19 measures should have never been used as a punishment and neither should Dr. Gauci have allowed that through COVID-19 measures, certain hotel establishments are making money out of poor people who were constrained to travel,” the union said.
“It is clear that Public Health went overboard causing unnecessary human suffering as a form of punishment which is definitely not acceptable in today’s world. Prime Minister in the name of the Public, please stop this useless human suffering.”
Should Malta change its hotel quarantine laws?
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