Vaccinated people have less chance of infecting others says Charmaine Gauci

Jan 17 2022

Pointing out the high rate of infectivity of the Omicron variant which now makes up most of Malta’s new cases, Superintendent for Public Health Charmaine Gauci reiterated how fully vaccinated people have less of a chance of getting infected or spreading it to others.

She explained how this is the main reason why people who are positive who have taken the booster jab can spend 10 days in isolation whereas others need to adhere to 14 days.

She went on to say that in the same way, people who live in the same home with someone who is positive need to spend 10 days in quarantine if they are completely vaccinated.

People who took the booster and were in direct contact with a positive case can leave quarantine on the 8th day after the last contact they had with the person, provided they have a negative PCR or rapid test. If they do not take the test but were boosted, they can go out after 10 days.

Asked whether the quarantine period will continuously be reduced, Gauci said that this is being discussed within the EU’s committee for public health. It will go down when the situation is stable and the science shows it can be done, she said.

This comes as Malta introduces the new pandemic restrictions, with people needing vaccine certificates to enter places like bars and restaurants. The rules were critiqued by several people and groups, but officials praised the rules’ effectiveness.

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Frank Fabri, top education official, resigns after Justyne Caruana scandal

Jan 17 2022

One month after former Education Minister Justyne Caruana gave up her position following an ethics probe by the Standards Commissioner, Frank Fabri also resigned from his post as education permanent secretary.

The government revealed in a statement that Matthew Vella will be taking his place, who took on the role of permanent secretary within the Ministry for Active Ageing in 2020.

No explanation for Fabri’s resignation was given by the statement, but thanked him for the changes he Brough about while he served his post. Fabri still remains a civil servant despite having resigned, with his new role yet to be determined.

Fabri had served in several roles within the education department as a director-general prior to becoming permanent secretary in 2017. Having served also as mayor of Rabat, Fabri was the subject of an internal civil service review which was assessing his role in a scandal cornering a €15,000 deal which he approved for Caruana’s friend Daniel Bogdanovic.

An ethics probe found that Bogdanovic had not written the report he was paid to draft himself and then repeatedly lied about it when questioned. Fabri had signed off on the contract, with Standards Commissioner George Hyzler noting that Fabri had been vague in his replies and declined to say whether it was the minister who proposed the footballer for the job.

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Drake crowned the most streamed artist of 2021

Jan 17 2022

Drake has officially been crowned the most-streamed artist of 2021 in the United States, beating high-profile artists like Kanye West, J Cole and Tyler, the Creator.

According to Chart Data, the Boy’s music received a total of 8.6 billion on demand streams, meaning that one out of every 131 streams was a Drake song.

The numbers add up as his most recent album Certified Lover Boy is the only 2021 rap album which qualifies as eligible for double platinum certification by the RIAA.

It first went platinum a month after its release, whilst also being the first rap album of 2021 to spend five weeks at number 1. It even managed to sell over 600,000 units in its first week.

As if this wasn’t enough, the album broke Apple Music and Spotify’s records for the biggest first-day streams.

Drake dropped Certified Lover Boy in September, which is known as fourth quarter when artists are closing shop and planning for the next year. By building up hype for the album, Drake managed to garner insane streaming numbers.

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UK could scrap all restrictions but two – should Malta follow suit?

Jan 17 2022

Reports are suggesting that all COVID-19 restrictions except for two could be scrapped as UK’s Plan B measures are due to be reviewed soon.

Senior government sources have revealed that the current restrictions in place may be removed after 26th January. These include mandatory mask wearing, COVID passports and the work from home rule.

All that will essentially remain will be a requirement to isolate for five days if one tests positive for COVID-19 and the need to take lateral flow tests for International travel. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that the sooner the measures are lifted, the better.

‘I think it’s important that we’re led by the science on this. We had access to the Government scientific and medical advisers and that’s helped us form our views’ he said.

Alluding to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest party scandal, Starmer said that ‘if it’s the right thing to lift those restrictions, we will vote to lift those restrictions. But we’ll be led by the science as we always have been, not by the politics of propping up a broken Prime Minister.’

Looking at Malta, today saw the introduction of new measures which were no stranger to controversy. Malta now requires vaccination certification to enter several establishments, masks to be worn by unvaccinated or people in groups larger than 2, and other measures.

Could UK’s move to remove most measures prompt other countries, like Malta, to move forward with similar action? Of course, the data of infections would have to be analysed to check if the epidemiological situation improved or worsened.

Malta’s Health minister Chris Fearne highlighted how the way out of the pandemic, and even the easing of restrictions, is the vaccine rollout.

Pushing for more inoculation, the vaccine measure was met with some criticism by many. However, health authorities revealed that they were aiming to administer the jab to 70% of those eligible by this weekend, with 306,964 booster shots administered as of today.

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