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Watford refuse to release players to Africa Cup of Nations

Jan 3 2022 Share

Watford have reportedly refused to release their two star players Ismaïla Sarr and Emmanuel Bonaventure Dennis to represent their countries in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations. This years AFCON will be hosted in Cameroon and the tournament will begin on the 9th of January, with the final being played on the 6th of February.

 

Ismaïla Sarr plays for the Senegalese national team whilst Dennis for Nigeria. Nigeria have simply refused to respond and has now replaced the player, whilst Senegal have released a whole statement regarding one of their most influential player. They have accused Watford of providing “spurious” reasons and have also threatened the English club with getting FIFA involved.

Watford have also released their own statement about Sarr. They stated “Ismaïla Sarr suffered a knee ligament injury on 20 November in the match against Manchester United and has not been fit to play for Watford since,”. They went on to say “In early December, the club wrote to the Senegal Football Federation outlining the clinical diagnosis of Ismaïla’s injury and immediately followed that up by supplying the MRI scans detailing the extent of the injury. After further consultation with medical experts, we informed the federation of Ismaïla’s rehabilitation process and likely timeframe of recovery.”

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Calls for COVID self-testing kits by Nationalist Party

Calls for COVID self-testing kits by Nationalist Party
Jan 3 2022 Share

The Nationalist Party has issued a call for regulated self-testing for COVID-19 in view of what seems to be a ‘breakdown’ in the testing and contact tracing system. 

Given the massive spike in cases, the party said that the government needed to be transparent in its decision making. Apart from this, the Opposition stated that the government should also reveal which variant is currently dominant in Malta. 

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The party stated that the introduction of self-testing kids could ease the testing backlog caused by the government which, according to the Opposition, was due to a lack of planning. 

This comes after many in the health authorities, including Superintendent for Public Health Charmaine Gauci, argued against self-testing kits. 

The main argument was that people with no medical background would be more susceptible to making mistakes when trying to test for COVID-19. 

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Mum gives birth to twins born in two different years in extremely rare case

Mum gives birth to twins born in two different years in extremely rare case
Jan 3 2022 Share

In a rare one to two million occurrence, two twins in California were born on different days, months, and years as 2022 came rolling in. 

Little Aylin Yolanda and Alfredo Antonio Trujillo were born 15 minutes apart on New Year’s Eve. Alfredo came first at 11:45pm, followed closely by his sister just as the clock struck midnight. 

The siblings were born at Natividad Medical Centre, with the establishment tweeting out: “At midnight, Natividad welcomed Aylin Yolanda Trujillo as the area’s first baby of 2022! Her twin, Alfredo Antonio Trujillo, was born 15 minutes earlier at 11:45 pm Friday, Dec. 31, meaning their birthday falls on a different day, month and year — a 1 in 2 million chance!”

The twins are the siblings of three older kids, with their parents Fatima Madrigal and Robert Trujillo expressing the bizarre circumstances of the birth. 

Even Dr Ana Abril Arias, a family doctor at the establishment, described it as one of the most memorable deliveries of her career. ‘It was an absolute pleasure to help these little ones arrive safely in 2021 and 2022.’ 

According to Natividad, there are around 120,000 twin births in the US per year. This is already just 3% of births, with twins born on different birthdays being very rare, let alone on New Years Eve. 

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Employer associations agree with presenting vaccine certificates for work

Employer associations agree with presenting vaccine certificates for work
Jan 3 2022 Share

Two associations for employers have expressed their agreement with the idea of employees presenting their vaccination certificates to be able to access the workplace. 

Speaking on TVAM this morning, the director general of Malta Employer’s Association Joseph Farrugia and Malta Chamber of Commerce President Marisa Xuereb discussed this view. 

Farrugia argued that the virus does not discriminate against people who enter restaurants or those who enter the workplace. There are ongoing discussions concerning within employee relations board about whether the certificate should be made mandatory to enter workplaces. 

Xuereb highlighted that she is not advocating for employers to forcibly make people get the vaccine but stressed that employers also have the right to see whether a high risk of infections is keeping unvaccinated employees from reporting from work. 

Discussing the quarantine period, Xuereb said that ten days are enough, but suggested 7 days for those who have been vaccinated. She said that 20% of the Chamber employees are in quarantine and it is thus very difficult to operate. 

Farrugia continued by saying that the quarantine period is the authorities’ prerogative, insisting that should they note that the virus is not as strong, quarantines should be shortened given cases do not increase. 

He also said that 20% of workers in quarantine is, given the pandemic situation, a realistic one but said that only 20% to 25% of employees can use teleworking or remote working. 

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