Dr Mallia Azzopardi who heads the Infectious Diseases Unit at Mater Dei, joined in the choir call to ban gatherings in Malta as COVID-19 cases linked to parties and festa activities rise.

In an interview on TVM’s Rasimbras this evening, he did however insist that that tourism must continue and the airport should remain open because Malta cannot “die of starvation”. 

The doctor also felt confident that Malta will keep the virus’ spread under control, and that he was concerned but not alarmed at the sudden spike of cases over the week.

“I expect there to be [COVID-19] clusters every so often until a vaccine is found and Malta achieves immunity,” he explained. 

Malta’s current testing capacity is at 2,000 swab tests per day. This, together with the ability to conduct contact tracing, isolate cases and enforce quarantine makes the doctor confident that Malta will continue handling the pandemic well.

Malta’s figures of active COVID-19 cases reached triple digits this week, with 46 cases in the community and 66 rescued migrants testing positive.

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