Malta ranks highest EU COVID hospital admissions

Apr 20 2022

Malta currently has the highest number of COVID-19 hospital admissions in Europe, despite the health authorities saying that the majority of patients are taken to hospital for other reasons and testing positive after the fact.

Weekly figures published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) showed that there were over 24 patients per 100,000 people admitted in the week ending April 10th.

The ECDC data now provides the only official insight into Malta’s hospital situation since the daily updates by local health authorities stopped.

According to the data, Malta had a rate of 24.1 patients per 100,000 people in the period being reviewed. This is the highest-ever registered since the pandemic first hit.

The increase in admissions comes a few weeks after the latest spike in community infections. The health authorities state that the majority of admissions are only found to have COVID after routine checks.

Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said that 70% of those admitted into hospital were not admitted due to COVID. The ECDC report showed that Malta’s case and death rates continued to increase in the past weeks.

Malta registered a total of 89,310 total cases, 7,159 current active cases with 282 new ones discovered in the past 24 hours. Malta also has 467,700 people fully vaccinated against the virus, with 677 deaths registered in total.

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Scientist names new millipede species after Taylor Swift due to being a fan

Apr 20 2022

A US scientist has just named a newly discovered twisted-claw millipede after insanely popular Taylor Swift, in recognition of her talent as a songwriter and performer.

Researchers from the Virgina Tech published a study in the journal of ZooKeys which detail the ‘Nannaria swiftae’ alongside 17 other newly discovered species found in the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee.

The twisted-claw part of the common name is a reference to the twisted claws on the legs of males. Dr Derek Hennen, the lead authority of the study, revealed the names of some of the species he and his team researched.

This new millipede species is Nannaria swiftae: I named it after @taylorswift13! I’m a big fan of her music, so I wanted to show my appreciation by naming this new species from Tennessee after her. A high honor! pic.twitter.com/fXml3xX5Vs

— Derek Hennen, Ph.D. (@derekhennen) April 15, 2022

Naming one of the new species after his wife, ‘nannaria marianae’, he went on to say that naming the millipede after the artists is a ‘high honour.’ In non-scientific jargon, the millipede is named ‘Swift Twisted-Claw Millipede.’

He went on to add that her music helped him get through the ‘highs and lows of graduate school, so naming a new millipede species after her is my way of saying thanks.’ The scientists had been researching the species for five years.

So far, the Nannaria swiftae has only been discovered in Tennessee, a state where the artist herself lived. This is not the first creature to be named after a beloved celebrity. A species of venomous snake was named after Metallica’s James Hetfield, called the ‘Atheris hetfieldi.’

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Opposition leader election process to begin this week

Apr 20 2022

The Nationalist Party executive will meet this Thursday to outline the details of the leadership election process.

The executive meeting will be followed by a general council session on Sunday, which will be the official start of the rather lengthy process which will see the Opposition getting a new or keeping its leader.

This is due to PN statute requiring party leader Bernard Grech to step down after having lost a general election. This will give party members the opportunity to elect a new candidate if that is what they deem right.

Grech himself said that he aims to re-contest his post, something he hinted at during the general election campaign as well as after the official results were published.

He is also the only candidate so far to have stated that he intends to run. Sunday’s council will set out the nomination process timeline, voting candidates, campaigning and the eventual election.

If Grech is the only sole candidate for the election, he will only need a simple majority vote to stay in the post. If others contest the list, a secret vote will be held should there be more than two candidates. The top two will face off in an election.

Grech became leader in October 2020, getting 69.3% of party member votes against Adrian Delia. Delia ruled out contesting, as did popular PN MP Joe Giglio.

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Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar commemorates 4/20 with an Instagram story

Apr 20 2022

Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar took to her Instagram story to wish her followers a Happy 4/20, a day associated with the smoking of cannabis.

The MP has been very outspoken in the past about the cannabis reform and the responsible use of the drug. She even suggested several proposals for its use before the bill was approved.

Back in December of last year, Malta became the first European country to make cannabis legal, with the white paper having been published in March of 2021.

The law was no stranger to controversy however. The Opposition and several other organisations expressed their concerns about the law, whereas on the other hand, a Malta Cannabis Authority was set up to disseminate accurate information and services associated with the legal use of the drug.

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