Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1237083
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 APRIL 2020 CORONAVIRUS CRISIS THE police are encouraging victims of domestic violence not to be afraid to come forward, as the COVID-19 lockdown keeps victims in- side abusive homes. There were 102 reports of domestic violence in Jan- uary, 120 in February and 116 in March. In response to the COVID-19 pandem- ic, the police recently made it possible for victims to file reports online over the tele- phone. The official figures were released after MaltaToday reported Lara Dimitrijevic from the Women's Rights Foundation warning that women have been experi- encing an increased level of abuse due to the partial lock- down in Malta. "Women are reporting a greater level of physical and sexual abuse, due to the fact that they are now trapped with the per- petrator 24/7 as if they were prisoners," Dimitrijevic said. Inspector Sylvana Gafà, who is in charge of the Vic- tim Support Unit within the Malta Police Force said: "we encourage victims to keep on reporting as they are go- ing to find the full support of both the police and the social workers. Any form of abuse is unacceptable and the professionals are work- ing hard to keep on deliver- ing the same service, even in such difficult times. The on- ly difference is that victims can now file reports in per- son, by going to the nearest the police station, online, or even by telephone." Police appeal on domestic violence: don't be afraid to make call COVID-19, more recoveries, four new cases MATTHEW AGIUS PUBLIC health superintendent Charmaine Gauci yesrerday an- nounced four new cases of coro- navirus, three of which hailed from inside the quarantined mi- grant reception centre of Hal Far. Another eight cases of coronavi- rus patients were reported to have recovered. Malta has now carried out over 23,000 swab tests, an average of almost 600 every day. Malta has 324 active cases. Gauci called on people to continue re- specting social distancing despite the low number of cases, insisting that Malta had such low numbers because measures and restrictions were being correctly adhered to. Taking questions from journal- ists, the public health superinten- dent said that the more controlled the virus is, the better the chance is of creating a vaccine. Research is still underway in this regard, she said. Gauci said Malta still needed to wait a little longer to see whether it should lift measures, pointing to Japan which had to hastily reintro- duce restrictions after lifting them too early. Decisions like this must be backed by evidence, Gauci said. It was true that the number of infections in Malta is small, she said, but stressed the need for the public to continue to follow the prescribed measures in order to reduce their chances of meeting infected persons. "We will be sure of having reached plateau when we see a steadily reducing number of cas- es," she said. Asked if she feared a secondary wave of infections, Gauci said oth- er countries were also following the situation with this in mind and preparing to mitigate it. One could only monitor the situation at this stage, she said. Health Minister Chris Fearne yesterday also announced that 125 ITU beds had been added to Mater Dei Hospital, up from 20. "Please help us keep them empty," he said. Health Minister Chris Fearne is shown a robotised process to prepare unit doses of medicine stored at the Central Procurement and Supplies Unit (CPSU)