Valletta NYE celebrations cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions; TV production to take place instead

Dec 23 2021

In light of the recently-announced COVID-19 restrictions which prohibits all standing events as of Monday, The Valletta Cultural Agency has cancelled the New Year’s Eve event which had to take place at St. George’s Square.

A Facebook post by the VCA read that “after discussions which took place in the last few hours in light of the recent developments and the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Valletta Cultural Agency is cancelling its plans for the New Year’s Eve event.”

The event will be replaced by a television production which will happen at Fort St Elmo and will remain in line with all of the relevant protocols. It will be televised on TVM, ONE, NET TV.

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Fabian Demicoli joins Malta Daily to host exclusive current affairs interview show

Dec 23 2021

Local journalist and personality Fabian Demicoli has officially joined the Malta Daily team to conduct the exclusive talk show The Interview with Fabian Demicoli. The talk show will cover some of Malta’s hottest topics and current issues and will welcome a host of high-profile guests.

A seasoned journalist, well-known for his media prowess, Fabian is the former Head of Programmes and Head of News on one of Malta’s leading TV stations and is well-known for his previous role as a journalist and producer with Xarabank and some of Malta’s leading television programmes. He promises to bring interesting and engaging discussions to the Malta Daily platform while keeping the content fresh and vibrant.

Watch the first episode of ‘The Interview with Fabian Demicoli’ with his Excellency The President of Malta George Vella:

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Highest number of daily cases registered in Malta at 733

Dec 23 2021

Just a day after Malta registered a record of new daily cases at 582, the island managed to top it at 733.

Addressing a press conference, Health Minister Chris Fearne and Superintendent for Public Health Charmaine Gauci announced the amount of daily cases along with the arrival of the Omicron variant to our shores. This means that Malta currently has 3532 active cases.

In terms of hospitalisations, there are currently 53 patients being treated for the virus at Mater Dei Hospital, 3 of whom being in the ITU.

Fearne had also previously stated that, given the rollout of the COVID vaccine, assessing the rate of hospitalisation takes precedence over the amount of daily and active cases registered.

As of yesterday, 1,023,476 doses of the vaccine have been administered, 181,278 of which are booster doses. The vaccine, health officials said, is the way to save the festive season from the spike.

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Establishments to close by 1 am and seated events as of Monday 27th

Dec 23 2021

New restrictions were announced during a press conference by Health Minister Chris Fearne which concern events and establishments. As of next Monday 27th December, all events can still be organised but can only take a seated format.

Those events which were done with standing protocols will be stopped and switched to seated events. The only exception to this will be weddings and funerals, which will retain their current protocols.

Apart from this, all establishments will have to close by 1 am as of next Monday as well. This means that even establishments which had the license to close after 1 am will have to abide by this new regulation.

This will apply until the 17th of January, which is when the vaccination measure will come into effect. Sporting events will take place without spectators and effective immediately, visiting hours at Mater Dei will be reduced.

At pension homes, this will not take place as most are vaccinated with the booster doses. Fearne also highlighted that the aim is to reopen schools after the Christmas holidays and encouraged vaccination.

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