Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1280162
3 NEWS 20.08.2020 PUBLIC health doctors will be going on a one-hour strike today, over a reversal of COVID-19 restrictions on bars. e Medical Association of Malta said it was declaring the one-hour strike today for all doctors working in public health from the grade of foundation doctor to that of consultant from 8am-9am. Doctors working at the swabbing cen- tres are exempted from this directive. e directive is not applicable to the Chief Medical Officer and the Superintendent of Public Health. "is one-hour strike is being ordered in protest against political and unscien- tific interference by other ministries in the work of public health doctors, with the result that faulty decisions are being taken by other ministries which do not have a scientific basis and may result in illness in the general population and the medical profession alike," the MAM said. "is symbolic protest is being ordered to show that public health doctors cannot take responsibility for decisions which are taken without their knowledge or against their advice, and which may result in se- rious harm to their health or their col- leagues." All other MAM directives remain sus- pended, but may be reactivated should implementation and enforcement of the public health measures announced on Monday not be satisfactory, the MAM said. A legal notice issued on Tuesday evening loosened the very restrictions placed that same day for COVID-19 prevention to close bars. e MAM said the legal notice was "completely different" to what was an- nounced by the Superintendent of public Health earlier in the week in a bid to con- trol the COVID-19 spike. On Monday Health Minister Chris Fearne announced that bars, discos and clubs would be closed from Wednesday and only those with a restaurant would be allowed to remain open. However, the legal notice, allows them to stay open as long as their patrons are seated at a table and served food and drinks. e Malta Tourism Authority further stated this could be a simple serving of crisps at a ta- ble of seated patrons. MAM said the decision undermined public health measures aimed at con- trolling the epidemic. "e Malta Tour- ism Authority is in self-destruct mode and fomenting epidemics again, putting profit before health. e government should offer financial compensation to bars and clubs and not act irresponsibly endangering the lives of people." e association said that it had under- stood that only bars with a licence to function as a restaurant would be allowed to remain open. "Serving a bag of crisps with a drink does not modify your licence, neither does it change the genetics of a vi- rus. Whoever drafted the legal notice is insulting the intelligence of all the Maltese people," MAM said. MUMN calls for solid enforcement e Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) also expressed its reser- vations on whether effective enforcement will be in place to ensure the new meas- ures regulating the opening of bars and kazini are adhered to. e union welcomed the recent clar- ifications issued by Malta Tourism Au- thority regarding the opening of bars and Kazini, but said it remained concerned on two very important aspects. "All platters or snacks served in bars and Kazini, are to be served individually and not as sharing, since the current practice is to serve platters and snacks to share among many people," the union said in a statement. Food sharing being a platter or a snack could easily transmit any virus or bacte- ria from one person to another, the union said. "So MUMN expects the MTA to check all menus to see that there is no food shar- ing among patrons sitting on the same ta- ble." As to enforcement of the measures, MUMN said bars and kazini could easily introduce snacks and platters with the pretext of not closing down but then to retain a "business as usual" approach. "e concept that everyone will be seat- ed, and no one can gather around a bar is acceptable in concept but needs heavily enforcement," MUMN said. "e government's credibility on en- forcement is considered poor when the economy factors in so MUMN has great reservations on the success of such regu- lations issued today." FROM PAGE 1 "As the pandemic broke, some inves- tors suddenly took a dtep back and were weary about committing capital in that uncertain environment," Chetcuti said. But the new measures tipped the bal- ance and investors, both contractors and individual buyers, were attracted by the savings that became possible. "If it weren't for the measures we pro- posed, the industry would have floun- dered," Chetcuti said. e measures in fact saw the buyer benefit from the 5% duty and 1.5% cap- ital gains tax. On a property valued at a mere €200,000, for example, that meant saving €7,000. And some buyers also benefited from even further savings if the property be- ing purchased was not the seller's main residence. In those cases, sales tax for the seller was reduced from 8% to 5%, which on €200,000 meant a saving of €6,000. "Many sellers passed these savings on the buyer, in a bid to sell their proper- ty fast, so some buyers ended up sav- ing €13,000 on a property valued at €200,000," Chetcuti said. e MDA boss said that, despite these favourable figures for July, not the en- tire industry was doing so well, with the rental property market taking a big hit. In fact, COVID-19 seems to have fur- ther dampened owners' interest in the rental market, which had already taken a beating with the new rental regula- tions introduced earlier. "ose regulations created a bureau- cratic nightmare for property owners and many have simply lost interest in the rental market," Chetcuti said. "is was made even worse with COVID-19, which resulted in a much smaller de- mand for property rentals, leading to a steep drop in rents." And that drop in rent prices has pushed even more investors away from the market which, driven by supply and demand, could not maintain the pre-COVID price levels. So proprty owners were suddenly faced with a much more negative re- turn-on-investment scenario than they were used to. Chetcuti also hightlighted the need to bolster and strengthen all industries if the economy was to survive what was turning out to be a much worse second wave of the pandemic. "As an association we cannot but high- light the importance of creating a stim- ulus for all economic sectors based on initiatives with very low-risk health re- percussions," he said. "e MDA is very worried about the way the second wave(of COVID-19) is being handled and calls for better-co- ordinated efforts by government and increased efforts by everyone to make sure that the country emerges stronger from this the challenge." Doctors on one-hour strike in protest at 'unscientific interference' on COVID-19 restrictions "If it weren't for the measures we proposed, the industry would have floundered"