Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1313950
2 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 2 DECEMBER 2020 NEWS COVID-19 KURT SANSONE TWO elderly women and two men have died while infected with COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll re- ported until nooon yesterday to 141. The first case involved a 79-year-old woman who tested positive for coronavirus on 21 November and died at Mater Dei Hospital on 29 November. The death was announced yes- terday. A second case involved an 80-year-old woman, who was confirmed positive for COV- ID-19 on 25 November and died yesterday at Mater Dei. A 67-year-old man also died yesterday at Mater Dei after contracting COVID-19 on 15 November. The fourth case involved a 73-year-old man who tested positive for COVID-19 on 16 November and died yesterday at St Vincent de Paule residence. The ministry expressed its sympathy with the relatives of the victims and appealed on people to continue adhering to the preventive measures. MALTA registered 102 new cas- es of COVID-19 yesterday, the Health Authorities announced. Information released by the Health Ministry on Facebook shows that there were 83 recov- eries, bringing the total of active cases to 2,086 Yesterday's cases are still being investigated but from the cases discovered, 22 cases were family members of previously known cases, seven were contacts of positive work colleagues, two were from direct contact with positive cases, three were from social gatherings, and nine were imported. 2,768 swabs were conducted between Monday and Tuesday, with a grand total of 430,782 swabs having been conducted since the start of the pandemic. Malta has registered 9,975 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic in March. THE Union of Professional Edu- cators calling on government to consider educators as frontlin- ers and to prioritise them when distributing the first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine. "The categories mentioned as being prioritised for this first batch of vaccines are the frontliners, our law enforcement officials and the elderly. The union urges the gov- ernment to consider our educa- tors as frontliners at this point in time, given the large number of people they are being exposed to on a daily basis, thus substantially increasing the risk of contracting and spreading the virus involun- tarily," a statement reads. The union is arguing that edu- cators are burdened between the numerous COVID-19 cases in schools and frequent isolation or quarantine periods. They noted a further psychological impact due to anxiety and stress given the un- certainty of the pandemic. "Allowing our educators the pos- sibility to receive the non-man- datory vaccination would reduce the risk of having schools under- staffed, or functioning haphazard- ly, due to sporadic outbreaks, or individual cases, amongst educa- tors," they said. "It would also guarantee peace of mind to our educators, who have been working relentlessly to ensure that the high-quality ed- ucation our children deserve, is delivered despite the pandemic, and all the unexpected events that have been accompanying it since March." Four more deaths bring COVID-19 death toll to 141 Union wants teachers to be 'frontliners' in vaccine priority 102 new cases registered • 83 recoveries • 2,086 active cases • 2,768 swab tests in the past 24 hours