Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1297549
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 OCTOBER 2020 NEWS Cases 3681 Active 703 Recoveries 2937 Deaths 41 Swabs 275,311 LATEST COVID-19 www.maltatoday.com.mt/covid19 PUBLIC CONSULTATION on the Environmental Impact Assessment (Amendment) Regula ons, 2020 Environment & Resources Authority Hexagon House, Spencer Hill, Marsa. Have your say on the proposed amendments to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Regula ons. The proposed amendments aim to consolidate the transposi on of the EIA Direc ve into the EIA process. These relate to: • The dissemina on and publica on of informa on rela ng to EIAs; • The taking into account of consulta ons and informa on gathered in various stages of the process, including the development consent procedure; and • The post-decision and monitoring procedures. Comments made will be considered in the finalisa on of the Regula ons and may be sent by 16th October 2020 on era.policy@era.org.mt More informa on may be found at h ps://era.org.mt/environmental-impact- assessment-amendment-regula ons-2020/ or by using the QR code indicated below. Disclaimer: Representa ons shall be registered and made public on ERA's website, together with details of the person making the submission unless anonymity is requested in wri ng by the person submi ng his/her representa on, in which case only the content of the representa on shall be made publicly available. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But no nominations have yet been filed for the second district seat vacated by Muscat, which could see such candidates as either former La- bour minister Stefan Buontempo, or the former Green Party candidate, Mark Causon, elected in his stead. Nominations close tomorrow on Mon- day. After failing to convince Grech to step aside, efforts are underway by Labour to convince Cau- son and Buontempo not to contest the bye-elec- tion, paving the way for the Labour executive committee to co-opt Dalli (pictured) into the House. Dalli was once considered to be a favourite to replace Muscat as leader, often polling high- ly along possible contenders like Robert Abela, long before Muscat's disgraceful exit from pol- itics after the arrest of Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech and the resignation of chief of staff Keith Schembri. But after Muscat stepped down, Dalli decided to retain her seat in Brussels as the race started framing itself around the contest between deputy PM Chris Fearne, and Abela. Dalli's entry into the Cabi- net would provide Abela with an opportunity to carry out a reshuffle, allowing the PM to advance the better elements of his team into new roles in Abela's cabinet. Dalli, who as a vice-pres- ident of the Socialists and Democrats enjoys a high profile in Europe, has been the author of successful environmental legislation, and has been at the forefront of the European socialists' 'green new deal' policies such as Europe-wide emissions cuts and carbon-neutral targets. Whether her European profile makes for an easy fit inside the Labour salon of pro-develop- ment policies is yet to be known. More signifi- cantly, she would be pushed to the government frontline as a Labour heavyweight, allowing Rob- ert Abela to maximise his gains in a forthcoming electoral confrontation with a new team. Dalli's profile could also serve as a coun- ter-weight to the growing influence of ministers like Chris Fearne, the deputy PM and health minister who has shone during the COVID-19 pandemic; and Ian Borg, the transport minister with the biggest ever roads project in history. Various ministers have been on the alert over a reshuffle that could leave some of Abela's origi- nal team out in the cold, spelling resentment at constituency level if not all districts are covered by one representative in Cabinet. Dalli co-option could precede Cabinet reshuffle Malta records 100 new COVID-19 cases, Grech: 'time for decisions now' MATTHEW AGIUS MALTA has registered 100 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the second highest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases since March. Statistics issued by the Health Department yesterday afternoon showed a sudden surge in the number of new COVID-19 infections. The tal- ly is the second highest ever recorded – 106 on 16 September. As at noon on Saturday, there were 703 ac- tive cases and 41 deaths from the disease. 22 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours. Yesterday's cases are still being investigated: 19 were family members of a pre- vious case, two were contacts of other positive cases and one case was imported. Con- tact-tracing of the new cases announced on Saturday is still under way, according to health authorities. Opposition Leader Bernard Grech yesterday said the time had come for the government to decide on how it was go- ing to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in Malta. "Decision time cannot wait any longer. Today we had another record when we currently have the largest number of active cases of people infected with the vi- rus since the start of the pan- demic in Malta and Gozo," he said yesterday. Grech said he wanted to make it clear that he was against a lockdown and that it was im- portant that the government declares a public health emer- gency as soon as possible and hands over authority to the Su- perintendent for Public Health on important decisions. The PN leader expressed his appreciation for the Superintendent's, her staff's and f r o n t l i n e r s ' work over the past months, saying that the skyrock- eting num- bers were a direct result of Robert Abela's poli- tics. Abela had famous- ly said that 'waves are in the sea' when talking about the prospect of a second wave of infections last summer. "You brought the waves on- to us, Prime Minister," said Grech. "And now because you are leading a government where everything is played down, your politics have failed and you are in a state of pan- ic. This is why it is important to have the Superintendent allowed to take decisions in- stead of you." Grech added that he had postponed tomorrow's planned visits to Nationalist party clubs and would dis- cuss the PN's contribution to stopping the pandemic with spokespersons for the parlia- mentary group. "We are still waiting for the Prime Minister to show he re- spects the families of the vic- tims of the pandemic and … fire Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Parnis after his insen- sitive comments," added the opposition leader, referring to Parnis's statement that "no one died from COVID-19 alone." "You're leading a government where everything is played down, your politics have failed and you are in a state of panic"