Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1214775
WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION €1.00 WEDNESDAY • 26 FEBRUARY 2020 • ISSUE 676 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY EDITORIAL • PAGE 9 PAGE 3 CORONAVIRUS LATEST PAGES 6-7 THE Ministry for Health yester- day declared that no COVID-19 cases had yet been reported in Malta. In a statement, the ministry said that in view of the current situation, health authorities are expanding their surveillance to cover a wider area of travel to af- fected areas. People who have travelled to China, Hong Kong, Singa- pore, Japan, Iran, South Korea and the Northern part of Italy, and are suffering from respiratory infec- tions should contact the family doctor or health authorities. "The Health Authorities are also advising people to avoid nonessential travel to the listed affected areas. People returning from these areas are being asked to self-quarantine for 14 days," the ministry said. People are also reminded to take the necessary precautions for the prevention of respiratory infections. The health authorities have reminded people to clean their hands often, contain germs if feeling unwell by not going to school or work, and avoid con- tamination by covering one's mouth and nose when sneezing and coughing. Health Authorities can be con- tacted on: 21324086 Coronavirus No cases in Malta Abela: Malta wants EU solution on migration MASSIMO COSTA MALTA can no longer tolerate the situation where it dispropor- tionately deals with the burden of irregular migration without the help of other EU member states, the Prime Minister said yesterday in a meeting with Eu- ropean Home Affairs Commis- sioner Ylva Johansson. Robert Abela, who met Johans- son while in Malta on a light- ning visit, lamented that "no concrete" action had been taken in terms of finding a European solution to the migration issue, despite many discussions having been held. "I'm stating the obvious when I say Malta is facing dispropor- tionate and immediate pressure when it comes to irregular mi- gration," Abela said, saying that over a 1,000 irregular migrants had arrived in Malta up to Feb- ruary 2020. "The problem is ever more worrying in the context of our size and population density," he said, underscoring that the island's reception centres were "practically full". The EU had to shift from a "management by crisis" ap- proach, which Abela said was the Union's current modus op- erandi, to an "agreement which guarantees a holistic approach". Vitals: Tumuluri paid himself €5 million bonus MATTHEW VELLA THE one-time chief executive officer of Vitals Global Health- care, Canadian national Ram Tumuluri, paid himself nothing short of a €5 million bonus on his third year at the helm of the hospitals' concessionaire. Diving headlong into a lucra- tive public-private partnership that gave the unknown VGH a 30-year concession to run three state hospitals, Tumuluri was paid the scandalous bonus in what MaltaToday has learnt was a condition in his contract: €5 million paid out to him on his third anniversary at the helm of VGH. PAGE 2 Ram Tumuluri (left) with heath minister Chris Fearne in 2016