Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1244022
5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 6 MAY 2020 NEWS SCOOTER 001 SHARING THE PRESENT, SO WE CAN BUILD A BETTER FUTURE. One app. Over 450 shared vehicles. Pay per minute, per hour or per day. goto.com.mt/download * Rate per minute for Scooter trips on the GoTo Business Plan. Terms and Conditions apply. €1.50 PAGE 2 PAGE 5 Silvio Schembri apologises for 'unfortunate' foreign workers comments Banking customers offered home loan moratorium due to Covid-19 THURSDAY 19 MARCH 2020 • ISSUE 50 WWW.BUSINESSTODAY.COM.MT DAVID HUDSON A rescue package worth €1.8 bil- lion has been unveiled to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the economy. PAGE 3 PAGE 2 Editorial PAGE 9 RIDING OUT THE STORM AND SAVING JOBS Coronavirus Government announces €1.8b rescue package to mitigate crisis Robert Abela BOV registers pre-tax profit of €89.2m • Government to pay companies €350 per employee on quarantine leave • Businesses ordered to shut down temporarily, will receive two days of assistance per week per employee Id-dinja dieħla f'riċessjoni? U Malta? www.illum.com.mt ARA PAĠNI 12 u 13 €1.25 IL-ĦADD 22 TA' MARZU 2020 • NRU 701 'Il-Gvern huwa rrassenjat li se nitilfu x-xogħol. Mentri aħna rridu nsalvawh' 'ROBERT GĦINNA QABEL IKUN TARD WISQ' Il-GWU, l-MHRA, il-GRTU, il-FATTA u l-UĦM mal-ILLUM iwissu li jekk il-Gvern mhux se jħabbar miżuri ġodda se jibdew jingħalqu n-negozji u jintilfu l-impjiegi, speċjalment fit-turiżmu, fir-ristoranti u d-divertiment! ARA PAĠNI 4 u 5 PAĠNI 10 u 11 SUNDAY • 22 MARCH 2020 • ISSUE 1064 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.95 maltatoday This won't work, Robert EDITORIAL MT2 ROBERT Abela's package does not go far enough and will not work. Malta has entered a war which has destabilised the economy and all its workers. Abela cannot be scared of spending and rack- ing up the necessary government debt needed for a national stim- ulus now: the risks of not acting will be greater than what lies ahead in the next months. He must alleviate economic hard- ship during the epidemic to pre- vent lasting damage to the econ- omy by stopping this recession from turning into the next Great Depression. What Malta needs is a form of universal credit for all, to keep aggregate demand up and so that idle workers at home can return straight to work at the end of the crisis and restore the supply chain. STAY IN, STAY SAFE, WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT/COVID19 Our appeal is simple: Maltese businesses must be sustained by keeping workers in a job with a social insurance that sustains their wages CLAUDIO GRECH 'We cannot allow Maltese businesses to fail. We would be failing society' INTERVIEW MT2 Never before has your support of free and independent journalism been so crucial Support us with a subscription or a donation maltatoday.com.mt/maltatodaydigitaledition CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A total of 1,218 swab tests were carried out on Monday. The two new cases bring the to- tal number of COVID-19 cases up to 482. Four more patients have re- covered, with the number of recoveries now standing at 403, with 74 cases still active. There are currently five pa- tients being treated at Boffa Hospital, four at St Thomas Hospital, and two at Mater Dei Hospital. None are in the ITU as of today. All other patients are recovering at home. Gauci appealed for vulnerable people to continue to stay home and only go out when it is abso- lutely necessary. She highlighted that the use of masks and visors is a mitiga- tion measure. "It is important to use these properly - the nose, mouth and chin have to be cov- ered by a mask," she said. Gauci underlined that all peo- ple visiting shops were obliged to wear a mask. Anyone not do- ing so can be refused entry. A two-metre distance should also be maintained in shops, and the number of customers has to be limited according to the size of the outlet. Asked by MaltaToday about the guidelines for elderly peo- ple, Gauci reiterated that those over 65 should not go out unless it was essential to do so. "They should stay in and leave their homes only for essential reasons, such as to collect med- icine if nobody can do so for them," she said. Questioned on whether the summer children's school Sko- laSajf would be taking place this year, Gauci said this had not yet been determined and would de- pend on an assessment of the effects of the lockdown relaxa- tion measures. 'Face masks and visors a mitigating factor in fighting pandemic' Coronavirus People not wearing a face mask when visiting shops can be refused entry