Man accused of sexually abusing nine-year-old step-granddaughter

Jul 23 2021

A 42-year-old from Zurrieq has been charged with sexually molesting his nine-year-old step-granddaughter. The court heard how the girl suffered severe psychological trauma from three alleged incidents, after the man committed non-consensual sexual acts whilst he had duty to care for her. The accused faces over seven years in prison if found guilty, but he and his lawyer plead ‘definitely not guilty.’

Lawyers Michael Sciriha and Matthew Xuereb requested to ban the publication of the accused’s name as well as his victim. Sciriha, requesting bail, asked for the accused’s wife to testify solely for bail purpose. The wife stated that the child never shown fear of being with the accused in the past two years. The court has denied bail at this stage, as they consider the risk of possible evidence tampering by the accused. The child’s reports to a child psychologist were reported consistent.

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Photo Source: Pixabay, Kamra tal-Periti

Vaccinated secondary contacts of positive COVID cases shouldn’t quarantine – Malta Chamber

Secondary contacts of positive COVID cases shouldn’t quarantine if vaccinated - Malta Chamber

Jul 23 2021

The Malta Chamber urged on Friday to not put secondary contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases under mandatory 14-day quarantine should they be vaccinated. Health authorities were called upon through a statement to rethink the quarantine measures. With 81% of the adult population vaccinated and therefore less likely to carry symptomatic infection or transmit the virus, the Malta Chamber believes it is totally unreasonable to enforce mandatory quarantine should they be secondary contacts of confirmed cases.

Employers are, as the statement pointed out, receiving the biggest burden out of all this situation, especially when work from home is impossible. Chamber president Marisa Xuereb stated that if ‘we really believe that vaccines break the chain of contagion, we need to be pragmatic and shouldn’t be placing fully vaccinated secondary contacts in quarantine.’

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Photo Source: BBC

172 COVID-19 cases registered with 65 recoveries

Jul 23 2021

Malta has registered 172 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours from 3,640 swab tests, while 65 patients have recovered. No deaths were registered in the past 24 hours. This information was announced by the official Facebook page of Malta’s Ministry for Health.

As of Thursday 13th March 2021, 736,727 vaccine doses were administered of which 389,263 were 1st doses. 364,899 people are currently fully vaccinated.

To date, Malta has registered 33,370 COVID-19 cases in total, of which: 30,356 have recovered, 420 died and 2497 are still active. 97 cases have been repatriated.

Mater Dei Hospital is currently treating a total of 19 COVID-19 positive patients, one of which is in the ITU. Of yesterday’s 166 reported cases, 126 were between ages of 10 and 39. The average age of yesterday’s cases was 26.

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Photo Source: Charmaine Gauci FB

Pfizer vaccine possibly strengthened by 8-week gap between jabs

Jul 23 2021

UK researchers have concluded that a longer gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine makes the immune system produce more infection fighting antibodies. The findings, experts say, support the UK’s decision in extending dose intervals from the initial suggestion of three weeks. The UK initially extended the gap to 12 weeks at the end of 2020, but the gap was reduced to around eight weeks as everyone over 18 has now been offered at least the first jab.

Despite the paper being not yet peer reviewed, the initial research suggests that both short and long dosing intervals of the Pfizer vaccine generate strong immune responses overall. Joint chief investigator in the Pitch study Prof Susanna Dunachie stated that two doses were better than one but the interval is somewhat flexible depending on the circumstances. Public Health England showed the Pfizer vaccine is immensely effective at reducing levels of serious disease, hospital admissions and death, even after one dose.

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Photo Source: Reuters