Unpublished legal notice keeping pharmacies from selling COVID home kits

Apr 11 2022

Maltese pharmacies are still unable to sell COVID-19 self-testing kits due to them still awaiting the publication of the legal notice allowing them to carry out the sales.

The Chamber of Pharmacists confirmed that the kits will not be sold by local pharmacies until there is relative legislation in place, despite the kits being available on the black market for months.

Member of the council Claire Shoemake said that the self-testing kits which will be sold in pharmacies will need approval by the World Health Organisation as well as the medicines authority.

These tests will not be nasal swabs as the ones used for rapid antigen testing or PCR. Instead, they will use a person’s saliva to detect any virus traces. Despite the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) saying that the self-tests can offer advantages, the opinions surrounding their legalisation are mixed.

Many in the medical profession pointed out that home tests are ‘operator-dependent’ and thus could result in false positives or negatives if performed incorrectly. The ECDC acknowledged this and said that this could make monitoring disease trends over time more difficult.

However, some of the benefits include enhancing disease control with prompt identification and isolation of cases. This means reduced community transmission.

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End spring hunting for turtle dove BirdLife asks court

Apr 11 2022

BirdLife Malta has motioned to a court to stop the spring hunting of the turtle dove, arguing that the governmental authorisation was illegal with no scientific basis.

A request for a warrant of prohibitory injection against the government was filed by the NGO on Monday morning. With Malta’s spring hunting season opened on Sunday morning, the hunting for turtle doves is set to kick off between April 17th and 30th with a national bag limit of 1,500 birds.

The moratorium on the hunting of the turtle dove, which was in place since 2017, was lifted by the ORNIS Committee last month. BirdLife said that it is requesting judicial assessment on how 2022’s spring hunting season was permitted.

Addressing a press conference outside the law courts in Valletta, BirdLife Malta president Darryl Grima said that the legal notice permitting this year’s spring hunting season for the turtle dove went against the European Birds Directive.

This directive supposedly supersedes any local law, with Grima saying that Maltese courts have the authority and responsibility to decide on any local actions which could breach European directives.

The ORNIS committee was described by BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana as acting like a government puppet. He said that hunters do not care about a declining species, pointing out that turtle dove has been classed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

BirdLife’s head of conservation Nicholas Barbara highlighted how an EU Task force met on March 18th and advised a zero take approach to turtle doves in 2022. Barbara said the government tis failing its obligations to protect the species as well as ignoring the advice of international experts.

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14 countries connected to Malta’s airport removed all COVID restrictions

Apr 11 2022

The month of March this year saw 316,713 Malta International Airport passengers, bringing up traffic for the first quarter of the year to around 673,000.

The total for this quarterly was 44.1% below the airport’s traffic during the same period in 2019, before the pandemic hit.

The number of available seats on flights remained 35.4% below pre-pandemic levels, with the seat load factor (SLF) averaging at 65.5% of the first three months of the year. The SLF measures the occupancy of the seats.

The seat load factor was 10.2% below 2019 levels, the statement by MIA revealed. The Italian market was the main channel to occupy air traffic to the island.

Just under 125,000 passenger movements from Italy were registered. The UK followed suit with around 119,000 passenger movements. France, Germany and Poland registered a total of 174,838 passenger movements.

The MIA statement emphasised the fact that out of the five aforementioned companies, the UK and Poland announced the lifting of COVID restrictions. A total of 14 countries that are currently connected to MIA have so far removed their restrictions.

This comes as Malta continues to ease restrictions in for the pandemic exit-roadmap. The easing was welcomed by the likes of MIA, as well as hotels associations. They urged authorities to remove the remaining restrictions as the summer period closes in.

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Transport Malta announces €20 million financial aid for hybrid or electric cars

Apr 11 2022

As Malta continues to approach is environmental & sustainable goals, Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects Aaron Farrugia has announced the governments continued efforts to incentivise a shift towards cleaner vehicles.

In a recent post, Farrugia welcomed Transport Malta’s €20 million financial aid package for individuals who would like to purchase hybrid or electric vehicles.

The minister revealed that in one month, Transport Malta approved 1,500 applications, reported to be worth over €6 million.

By the end of March, Malta will have over 8,000 registered electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

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