Pfizer anti-COVID pill approved by EU drug watchdog

Jan 27 2022

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved Pfizer’s coronavirus pill on Thursday. This makes it the first oral antiviral treatment for the disease to be authorised in Europe.

The EU drug watchdog said in a statement it had ‘recommended authorising Paxlovid for treating COVID-19 in adults who are at increased risk of the disease becoming severe.’

Two types of tablets form part of the drug and is the first COVID-19 therapy which can be taken at home. This is potentially a massive step towards ending the pandemic.

It has so far been authorised in a handful of countries including the USA, Canada and Israel. The EU had allowed member states to use it ahead of formal approval as an emergency measure against the South Africa discovered variant Omicron.

It should be, in theory, more variant proof, as, unlike vaccines, it does not target the evolving spike protein which the virus uses to invade cells.

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Malta breaks the record for electricity consumption due to winter cold

Jan 27 2022

The winter cold surely left an impact on the island’s residents as Malta just broke the record for the amount of electrical energy consumption due to the temperatures.

Enemalta revealed that last Monday and Tuesday, the island broke all preceding energy consumption records. The demand for electricity started to increase at a constant rate from Monday 14th January, with consumption reaching 473MW.

This number was already a significantly high limit compared to January 11th 2019’s 446MW. However, on the 25th of January, the demand shot up to 503MW, which is 13% up from the country’s previous record.

And this demand is expected to go up as the temperatures are bound to stick with us. Temperatures are set to go down to 7 degrees Celsius on Saturday.

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Woman guilty for locking vulnerable woman in unsanitary room with dogs

Jan 27 2022

Anna Maria Jimenez, a 38-year-old woman resident of Birżebbuġia, was sentence to two years in prison suspended for three years after she was found guilty of locking up a woman with intellectual disabilities for 17 hours a day.The woman, 39-years-old, was locked in a room filled with unbearable smells and two dogs. The culprit used to work as a cleaner at the hospital, locking the other woman in her bedroom between 10am until she goes back home at 3pm.

She was also found guilty of threatening another woman who lived with her in the same apartment to give her money for rent, demanding she hand over her credit and PIN number. The case came under investigation by the police after a report was filed at Aġenzija Appoġġ. When police went to the home of Jimenez, the woman was found assembling Playmobil toys alongside two dogs in a room with a wretched stench.

In her testimony, the vulnerable woman said that Jimenez used to lock her up in a room without electricity and was forced to use a bucket as a toilet and to wash the room. She was allegedly only let out of the room to assemble toys and take the dogs out. The woman was threatened with lack of food if she were not to finish assembling the toys. A witness from Playmobil confirmed that Jimenez used to take around 2,000 toys daily and they used to pay her for putting them together.

The other woman also testified that the salary used to go into Jimenez’s bank account. Magistrate Claire Stafrace Żammit said that the testimony of the two women sounded truthful. The Magistrate also confirmed that Jimenez used to threaten the women that they would be kicked out of the house or from work. She however did not find her guilty of threatening the victim because no certificates were presented to show that the woman had sustained any injuries. This is not the first time Jimenez had a brush with the law. In 2016, she was sentenced to four years in jail after she was found guilty of pimping a 15-year-old girl out for prostitution.

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Photo Source: The Local Italy, ConstitutionNet

€626.3 million in aid for families and business during pandemic

Jan 27 2022

During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, government expenditure was characterised by a substantial increase in costs for the economy and health. Social expenditure remained the highest in 2020.

The largest expenditure in the social sector was pensions, wherein costs reach up to a billion in euros. The second largest expenditure of €626.3 million was for financial aid given to families and businesses during the pandemic.

Slightly more than half a billion euros were spent on hospitals. This was revealed by official digits published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in a review of public finances for 2020.

The government spent around €946 million and a half in public finances when compared to the previous year at around €6,002 million.

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