“Malta was able to do something no other country was able to do.”

Saying this was the most difficult time Malta had faced since Independence, he was proud of how the people of Malta had cooperated when faced with the pandemic.

“The situation is under control, I’m satisfied that we kept the numbers and the rate that new cases are being found down, but this didn’t happen by coincidence,” he continued.

Saying there were deaths happening in countries just kilometres away from Malta, he said the island was able to avoid the situation happening locally because the country was “pro-active”.

“We were able to do this because we pre-empted the race and started running early. We didn’t approach this like it wasn’t going to affect us, and we wanted to give the health authorities the right amount of time to handle this and even be prepared in case there was a spike in cases,” he said.

He was also proud of the fact that though there were over 200 cases in Malta, they remained in good spirits and were in good health.

Saying he even spoke to one person who was positive with the coronavirus, he said Maltese people had cooperated and remained disciplined and continued to follow preventative measures.

Abela said his government was focused on striking the right “balance” between safety measures and personal freedoms.

Pointing to India, where the government announced a lockdown of 1.3 billion people overnight because they were not prepared, he noted the importance of keeping people’s physical and mental health in a strong state during these trying times.

“I don’t want to end up in a situation where we say we fully beat the coronavirus, only to find out we have another issue, for example, a rise in mental health issues or other medical issues that could develop from people staying home at long lengths,” Abela said.

“The Maltese people have suffered,” he continued, “but we minimised the pain as much as we could and that is why we left the freedom to people to go outside if they really do need. And it’s important to keep exercising, but keeping your social distance. Just today I plan to go cycling for one hour – either alone, or at most with one other person at a distance.”

“I just hope that after all this passes we can say, we spent money where we didn’t need to, instead of realising we don’t have something we needed to buy. When it comes to health, there are no compromises. It remains a priority, along with the economy,” he said.

He also touched upon issues such as the increased police presence in Malta’s roads as well as the rule of law.

Saying he was happy to see more police doing rounds in the streets, he said that this practice wouldn’t end once the partial lockdown is over – “seeing police sat in police stations is a thing of the past, they need to be visible” – before going on to say this was “a change I’ve been dreaming of seeing”.

He also said that the issue of rule of law in Malta, which was a key issue just a few months back, hadn’t been ignored, and his administration was working on it in the background.

What do you think of the Prime Minister’s comments?