Addressing a press conference, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne announced some new pandemic restriction easing when it comes to evens. The first notable measure was to change the number of people around a table during seated events such as a wedding limiting access to vaccinated, going up from 6 to 8 individuals. If tables are outside, the distance also decreases to one meter whereas if the table is inside, the distance goes down to one and a half metres. 

For seated events limited to vaccinated people, events such as weddings can now reduce the distance between clusters of people to one metre whilst also increasing the capping to 300 individuals from 100. Events for vaccinated people also required kids under 12 to present negative PCR or Rapid Tests due to not being eligible for the jab. This measure will now be removed starting Monday, meaning families with vaccinated adults accompanying anyone under 12 no longer need PCRs for the children. 

Fearne also revealed that the test event results are being analysed to see whether any more updates to other events or contexts such as schools and Christmas events can take place. The results will be finalised by the end of the week and announced subsequently. 

When it comes to public transport, including fast ferry services, the previous requirements stated that they do not exceed their 65% capacity. This will go up to 80% as of next Monday. 

Travelling restrictions will also see some countries being removed from the dark red list and others returned to it. This has to do mainly with the MU variant being considered as a variant of not interest but not one of concern, whilst some countries, like Russia, have detected increasing numbers of cases and deaths ever since the pandemic hit. 

#MaltaDaily

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