Over 50% of businesses forecast better sales during Christmas of this year

Dec 8 2021

Up to 53% of businesses are expecting better sales during this year’s festive season when compared to the same period in 2020.

A survey by the Malta Chamber of SMEs revealed that the majority, at 42%, expect to see better sales than 2020. 11% feel that this festive season will be closer to 2019, thus getting the 53% mark.

23% believe that sales will be more comparable to 2020 whereas 18% feel that this year, sales will be somehow worse than last year. 6% responded not applicable.

The survey follows Black Friday, confirming that this year, many businesses extended their offers beyond Black Friday. This led to a calmer 26th of November but also gave businesses a strong November, with results leaving the majority satisfied.

Black Friday week starting 22nd November proved the most popular with 35% of businesses choosing this option. This was followed by Black Friday Weekend at 27%, followed in turn by those deciding to run offers throughout the month of November at 23%.

#MaltaDaily

Children over 5 will be offered COVID vaccine by end of January 2022

Dec 8 2021

Speaking at a Council of Ministers meeting at the EU level, Health Minister Chris Fearne revealed that the booster administration was crucial against the pandemic as cases rose.

He highlighted the need for people to take their booster shot so that all of Europe can overcome the current phase of the pandemic which is ravaging most of the world.

He said that the decision to start rolling out booster jabs early was a very wise decision and that other European countries are taking the same route.

Furthermore, he said that the first consignment of the children’s COVID vaccine will be sent to Malta in the coming days. The Omicron variant has raised concerns by many officials around the world as it could evade immunity provided by current vaccines.

All countries will be receiving consignment of the COVID-19 vaccine for kids in the coming days. This will allow the jab to be offered to all children over 5 by end of January 2022. The EU has also donated over 350 million vaccines to external countries.

Malta has delivered one of the largest amounts of vaccines per capita. It recently donated 131,000 doses to Iran with the assistance of the European Commission.

#MaltaDaily

Photo Source: Chris Fearne FB

The world’s population is set to decrease for the first time

Dec 8 2021

For the first time in hundreds of years, the world population is set to start declining in a few decades.

There are currently around 7.8 billion humans running around on Earth right now – a number expected to peak in 2064.

Despite most reading this article being quite older by then, a new study published by Lancet shows that the peak will be roughly at 9.7 billion.

This will supposedly drop to 8.8 billion by 2100 – so some of us won’t be here to witness this. Lead study author and professor Stein Emil Vollset details more of this interesting study.

The last time the global population decreased was during the 14th century due to the Black Plague. This time however, the upcoming decrease is set to be due to infertility rather than pandemics or famine.

Around 23 countries will also experience a shocking decline of over 50% – some of these including Italy, Spain, South Korea, Portugal, Japan and Thailand.

Two main factors could contribute to this decline – improvements in access to modern contraception and the rates of women and girls seeking higher education, says the researcher.

These are factors which drive the fertility rate as the average number of children a woman delivers over a lifetime is the largest determinant of population.

#MaltaDaily

Eilish and Omicron among 2021’s most mispronounced words

Dec 8 2021

You’re not alone if you’ve been corrected as to how to actually say Billie Eilish’s last name or the new COVID-19 variant title.

Both have made it to a list of 2021’s most mispronounced words, with a survey amassing which words and names were trickiest for anyone to utter.

The list was compiled by the US Captioning Company, whose job is to provide subtitles for live events on TV and courtrooms. So they know a thing or two about pronunciation.

The COVID variant, for instance, is supposed to be pronounced ‘OH-mee-kraan’ or ‘AH-muh-kran’ (try it!) and depends on whether you’re in the UK and US.

As for the pop star’s name, it’s supposed to be uttered as ‘EYE-lish’, as many were attempting to twist the surname according to what they deemed more probable.

Other words which suffered the wrath of mispronunciation were Dogecoin (DOHJ-coin), the cryptocurrency made popular by Elon Musk, Glasgow (GLAHZ-go), which was mispronounced by both Biden and Obama, and Yassify (YEAH-sih-fai) a popular beauty filter trend.

2020’s batch of mispronounced words included Anthony Fauci’s last name (spelled FOW-chee) and US Vice President’s first name (CAW-ma-la).

#MaltaDaily

Photo Source: World Meteorological Organisation, Medium