Two year anniversary of COVID-19’s first case in Malta – the history so far

Mar 7 2022

It has officially been two full years ever since the COVID-19 pandemic made its way to Maltese shores, kicking off 24 months of restrictions and wishing a return to normality. COVID-19 arrived in Malta on the 7th of March 2020 after initially being a mysterious new virus we only heard rumours of as it ravaged Wuhan, China.

Upon the first case being registered on the island, the health authorities, lead by Health Minister Chris Fearne and Superintendent for Public Health Charmaine Gauci, kicked off their first press conference, which became a weekly occurrence. Numbers rocketed from then on, taking dips when measures were introduced and later on when the vaccination rollout entered the scene. These two years were characterised by easing and re-establishing of measures as well as a general public frustration.

Back in December of 2021, Malta registered the highest number of cases at 1298, right at the peak of the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. However, the situations since then saw much improvement, with health authorities attributing this mostly to the vaccination program.

Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne took to social media to commemorate the two year anniversary of the pandemic in Malta. He paid respects to all those who were sadly lost to COVID, with the number reaching up to 608 as of yesterday.

However, Fearne said that these two years show the true strength of the Maltese community and government as they all rose to the occasion to mitigate the spread, death and suffering inflicted by the virus. He highlighted how this achievement was recognised by the entire world’s health authorities.

‘With discipline and often difficult decisions, we pushed Malta back towards normality. I am proud to have been part of this success’ said the health minister. The battle against COVID-19 in Malta, and the whole world, is far from over however. As restrictions get eased through the exit strategy, Malta currently has 870 cases, but only 45 of those are in hospital. 1,245,686 doses of the vaccine have been administered, 344,534 being booster doses.

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Photo Source: Chris Fearne FB

€1,023,097 raised in donations for Labour Party ahead of election

Mar 7 2022

The Labour Party managed to raise a total of €1,023,097 in donations during a fundraiser ahead of the election. With the slogan Malta Flimkien, the amount was raised as the electoral campaign enters the third week ahead of the 26th March voting day.

Robert Abela thanked the donators for their support on his social media as he continues to attend political rallies.

On February 27th, the Nationalist Party raised up to €541,230 in a similar fundraiser.

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TikTok and Netflix shut down services in Russia as sanctions continue

Mar 7 2022

Both Netflix and TikTok have suspended their services, joining the list of digital providers blocking users in protest over the invasion of Ukraine.

Joining the likes of Disney, Warner Bros, Ikea, Visa and Mastercard, Netflix announced that it will be halting all future projects and Russian acquisitions as well as removing all state-run programming from its site.

The move was backed by social media platform giant TikTok, which announced that it would halt all the posting of content from Russia in the wake of the ‘fake news’ legislation.

This is in reference to Russia effectively banning words such as ‘invasion’ and ‘assault’ in the media. Moscow’s defence ministry said that Russian media should stick to the official version of events, accusing a number of independent media outlets of spreading ‘unreliable socially significant untrue information.’

TikTok responded to this announcement by stating that ‘in light of Russia’s new fake news law, we have no choice but to suspend live streaming and new content to our video service while we review the safety implications of this law.’

Russians can now face up to 15 years in prison for publishing ‘fake news’ or could be fined up to 1.5 million rubles or a fine worth the convict’s aggregate wages for up to 18 months.

This lead to the BBC, Bloomberg News and the Canadian Broadcasting Company to pull their correspondents from Russia. Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief said that the change in the criminal code makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country.

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Bulgarian motorcyclist seriously injured after traffic accident

Bulgarian food courier seriously injured after traffic accident

Mar 7 2022

Police were informed yesterday evening of a traffic accident at around 1945hrs which took place in Triq il-President Anton Buttigieg, Zejtun.

Upon convening on the site, police found from preliminary investigations that a crash had occurred between a motorcycle of the type Honda 600, driven by a 38-year-old Bulgarian man, and a Mitsubishi L200, driven by a 63-year-old Zejtun resident.

The motorcycle driver, who was a food courier, was given preliminary aid by the medical team and subsequently taken to Mater Dei via ambulance. He was certified as having suffered grievous injuries.

Investigations are ongoing.

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