Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1219206
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 MARCH 2020 SPORT LATEST RESULTS NEWS BOV Premier League Santa Lucia 1 Mosta 2 Santa Lucia starting line-up: Timothy Aquilina, Gabriel Mentz, Kevin Correia, Adam Magri Overend (Omar Elouni-79), Jackson Mendoza, Maxuell Maia, Kevin Ante Rosero, Jamie Zerafa, Camilo Escobar, Rei Tachikawa, Leighton Grech (Jacob Walker-74) Sliema Wanderers starting line-up: Jake Galea, Alex Satariano (Jonathan Pearson-84), Kurt Shaw, John Mintoff, Mark Scerri (Michele Sansone-73), Federico Vasilchik, Claudio Zappa, Juri Cisotti, Juan Gill Cruz, Carlos Sobrado (Edmond Agius-66), Arthur Henrique Oyama Mosta starting line-up: Andreas Vella, Pedro Luiz Soares, Gabriel Aquilina, Terence Agius, Takanori Yokochi, Weverton Gomes, Rafael Morisco, Ebrima Sohna, Christian Eric Chaney (Duane Bonnici-60), Tyrone Farrugia, Matias Muchardi Senglea Athletic starting line-up: Matthew Farrugia, Conner Zammit, Sigitas Olberkis, Manolito Micallef (Jan Tanti-56), Taisei Marukawa, Jose Teixeira (Siraj Arab-81), Nikola Braunovic, Juninho Cabral (Jurgen Debono-66), Anderson do Nascimento, Justin Micallef, Ricardinho Theodore de Almeida Scorers: Maxuel Maia (Santa Lucia), Takanori Yokochi, Duane Bonnici (Mosta) Referee: Glen Tonna Assistant Referees: Luke Portelli, Mark Ciantar Fourth Official: Trustin Farrugia Cann BOV Player of the Match: Maxuell Maia (Santa Lucia) Referee: Ishmael Barbara Assistant Referees: Paul Apap, Thomas Debono Fourth Official: Slobodan Petrovic BOV Player of the Match: Juri Cisotti (Sliema) Sliema Wanderers 4 Senglea Athletic 1 Valletta 0 Gudja United 2 Hamrun Spartans 1 Hibernians 2 Scorers: Juninho Cabral (Senglea), Juan Gill Cruz, Juri Cisotti, Alex Satariano, Michele Sansone (Sliema Wanderers) Scorers: Nivaldo Rodrigues, Gabriel Mesah (Gudja United) Scorers: Dodo (Hamrun), Beerman M., Grech J. (Hibernians) TODAY'S MATCHES Balzan vs Tarxien Rainbows 2pm Gzira United vs Birkirkara 4pm MATTHEW AGIUS A 12-year-old girl and her two parents have tested positive for coronavirus after returning from a trip to northern Italy, travelling back to Malta through Rome, Health Minister Chris Fearne confirmed yesterday. The family is of Italian nation- ality and they reside in Malta. Fearne held a press conference yesterday together with Super- intendent of Public Health Prof. Charmaine Gauci, virologist Dr Chris Barbara, Prof. Michael Borg, who heads the infection control unit at Mater Dei Hos- pital, and Celia Falzon, the hos- pital's CEO, to address the new development. COVID-19 has been spread- ing worldwide since the start of the year, but till now there had been no confirmed cases of the virus reaching Malta's shores. The girl, an Italian national, had been on holiday with her fam- ily in Trentino, in the north of Italy during the end of Febru- ary and beginning of March. She returned to Malta on a flight from Rome on Tues- day. After returning, the girl and her family went into self-quaran- tine, in line with the current guidelines for those returning from high-risk areas, the minister said. It was only on Thursday that the girl displayed symptoms associated with coronavirus. Health authorities were alerted and tested the girl on Friday. Her test swabs resulted positive for COVID-19. Fearne said that the girl and her sister had not attended school since returning to Malta – nor had her parents gone to work – as he attempted to allay fears that the virus may have spread to the girl's classmates or parents' colleagues. Asked how many people had potentially been infected, he said that the family had gone into quarantine as soon as symptoms appeared and that transmission begins with symptoms. The girl and her family's contact with other people had been "mini- mal", Fearne said. The minister said that another individual – a Czech national – had tested negative for the virus but remained in self-quarantine, after she informed authorities that a person she recently met in Italy had contracted coronavirus. On Friday, the government turned away a cruise liner which went into self-quarantine after a former passenger contracted the virus, following threats of indus- trial action by nurses and doc- tors unions. No need to close schools or can- cel public functions, testing hub to open next week Fearne said that in the circum- stances, there was no need for schools to be closed. Nor was there any reason for public func- tions, such as weddings or cine- ma outings, to be cancelled, he added. "The steps being taken by the health department and the gov- ernment are efficient and there is no scope for alarm," Fearne said. "The government had been planning for a containment and mitigation plan for the virus for months. We are giving advice to self-quarantine and we are screening all passengers arriving in Malta." 323 swab tests have been car- ried out so far and all but one were negative, explained the minister, adding that officials had fielded thousands of calls on the 21324036 helpline. Fearne announced a new, sim- plified, helpline number: 111, for persons who fear that they could have contracted the illness. The new helpline is manned by doc- tors around the clock, he said. The health minister also said that a testing hub would open on Tuesday, where people could go to be swabbed and tested for the virus, without having to go to hospital or health centres. "In the meantime, an 18-bed isolation ward has already been set up at Mater Dei Hospital, with an additional 12 beds set up at another undisclosed location," he said. "And plans are also un- derway to use Boffa Hospital's 60 beds should the need arise in the future." Fearne said that more pro- tective clothing stock would be arriving in Malta in the com- ing days, with 32,000 protective masks arriving on Monday. "The EU will also be launching a joint procurement mechanism to be able to purchase protective clothing as a bloc and then distribute it to member states as need- ed," he said. Non-essential travel to Asia and Italy should be curtailed Superintendent for Health Dr Charmaine Gauci stressed the need to limit non-essential travel to Asia and Italy, particularly the regions of Piemonte, Veneto and Emilia Romagna. "We also urge any in- dividuals who returned from travel to these countries to self-quarantine while testing for COVID-19. We were expecting this and did our utmost to catch it as early as possible," Gauci said, stressing that anyone who visited locations where large numbers of persons have con- tracted the virus – namely Chi- na, Singapore, Iran, South Korea and Italy, should self-quarantine and contact the health authori- ties. She emphasised the need for testing to be carried out during this period, which is why the testing hub was being set up. "80% of cases are not serious," Gauci said, "What is killing some patients is not the virus itself, but the [combined effect of it and the] chronic illnesses they had." She reiterated the importance of handwashing, using alcohol Girl, 12, and parents