“I urge those individuals who are still not being self-disciplined to not only think of themselves but of their relatives, friends and colleagues who could be badly impacted by their behaviour. This is a moment of collective sacrifice. I’m immensely pleased with the results we’ve obtained so far but if we let our guard down, we will risk a spike that we won’t be able to control.”

Abela refused to give a timeline on when exactly he envisages loosening Malta’s restrictions, only stating that the more people follow the health authorities’ advice, the faster such restrictions can be loosened.

“Everyone is awaiting that moment,” he said. “It’s hard to provide a timeframe but I’m satisfied at the way things are going. The more we keep acting like we are, the closer that moment will arrive. I am looking forward to that moment we can return to normality and the people are crying out to return to normality, where you can go shopping without taking so many precautions and where you can go to work normally.”

“If anything, we have now learned how to appreciate and treasure the simple things in life.”

Later on during the interview, when the topic turned to irregular migration, Abela said he hopes the pandemic situation passes “in a few weeks’ time”.

And when discussing the future after the virus has been contained, the Prime Minister said Malta must plan to be amongst the first countries whose economies start turning again.

“This pandemic will pass and if anyone thinks that this will stay with us forever, that isn’t the case,” he said. “It’s a temporary situation, of months or weeks, that we must contain together but the sun will shine tomorrow. When it does, we must be prepared to be the first country which starts running as it will give us an economic advantage that cannot be ignored.”

“It’s important that we’ve been able to control the pandemic from a medical aspect so far, so that when the time comes to look at the economic aspect, we’ll start running as quickly as possible.”

“I have faith that the moment we can say we’re controlling the spread well, we’ll be able to start loosening restrictions and look to the future. I want the courts to open as quickly as possible, I want Malta to return to normality.”

“Everyone is looking towards that moment, everyone who had a project – perhaps an apartment they used to rent out but who now lost their rental income or had to reduce their rents.”

“No one could have predicted this reality three months ago. We saw what was happening in China but we didn’t believe we’d experience that reality ourselves. It came onto us and I believe it will teach us a lot about how to be prepared for all eventualities and about how the economy must save for a rainy day.”