“She was given documents officially giving her the all-clear and her doctors told her to keep them on her at all times,” Anna recounted.

Although Miriam had thoroughly disinfected her house, she decided to move in with her partner yesterday just in case she had missed a spot, and this after confirming with the health authorities that it was safe for his health.

However, after several weeks in full isolation, she was soon to realise that some people at the condominium her partner was staying at weren’t ready to welcome her back to society. 

“My mother went out to the communal garden to hang her washing but a neighbour told her to hang her clothes elsewhere because she was infectious. He hadn’t even know she had tested positive back then, only that she had returned from abroad.”

“My mother told him that she had contracted the virus but had since recovered and he freaked out, insisting that she stays ten metres away from him. She told him he couldn’t catch anything from her clothes and that she had recovered in either case, but he said the health authorities don’t know what they’re doing and that the document giving her the all-clear was only a piece of paper that means nothing.”

“He said it’s thanks to ‘irresponsible’ people like her that so many people are dying in the UK, told he to leave the premises and started brainwashing another neighbour.”

Anna said the two neighbours kept treating her mother like a leper, with the first one warning she’s “endangering everyone”, threatening to “make her disappear” and demanding that she stops playing badminton with her grandson because “exercise will make you sweat and make the virus travel”.

Meanwhile, the second neighbour warned that Miriam could be a false negative and maintained a significant distance from her, to the point where he ran back inside his apartment as soon as he saw her walk out of her flat.

“I told my mother to just ignore them and her partner told her to report the neighbours to the police for harassing and threatening her but she didn’t want to.”

Anna informed the condominium administrator, who advised her to ignore the neighbours, as well as the Health Department who said the neighbours can lock themselves inside their apartments if they refuse to accept the validity of the official all-clear document.

She said her mother has a strong character and is handling the situation relatively well but warned attitudes like her neighbour will ultimately harm Malta’s attempts to control the pandemic.

“They’re speaking of her as though she’s a leper,” she said. “If people have symptoms, then they mightn’t get tested because they’ll be afraid of the stigmatisation.”

*, ** – Their real names have been changed to protect their identities 

Cover photo: Stock photo 

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