Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1410377
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 15 SEPTEMBER 2021 NEWS COVID-19 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 People coming to Malta from these zones are forced into a two-week quarantine in hotels selected by the health author- ities. The expense of €100 per day has to be borne by the trav- eller and Maltese residents are denied the option to do quaran- tine at home. The quarantine system was heavily criticised in the past few days after a mother appealed to the health authorities to allow her daughter with Down's Syn- drome to quarantine at home rather than at a hotel. Rachel Umanah travelled to Nigeria with her brother and father, where she visited her grandparents. All three will have to quarantine on return to Malta as per COVID-19 pro- tocols issued by the Maltese health authorities, given that Nigeria is a dark red country. The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses yesterday also called out the regulations. "It is clearly evident that this is not a COVID-19 measure, but a punishment for going abroad to a red zone country," the union said on Tuesday as it joined a growing chorus of opposition to the draconian measure. "COV- ID-19 measures of this type are not acceptable since there are constraints in one's life and travel is not always for pleas- ure." The union said that although the person pays €100 daily, the service in these hotels is far from acceptable. "In fact, MUMN had to inter- vene when a nurse was locked in one of these hotel rooms for two weeks with his wife and small daughter, without inter- net and without food," it said. The union went on to call the measures "a shame on this country", appealing to the Prime Minister to change the legal notice allowing all those who have a residence to quar- antine at home. "MUMN is also informed that current nursing agencies that bring nurses from abroad to work in Malta are finding great difficulties in doing so because of this useless measure," it said. "Through covid measures, cer- tain hotel establishment are making money out of poor peo- ple who were constrained to travel." MUMN said public health went overboard, causing un- necessary human suffering as a "form of punishment." Additional reporting by Karl Azzopardi 'Shameful': Nurses' union slams quarantine measures Above: Rachel Umanah with her brother Daniel (Photo: Facebook) Left: The Corinthia Marina Hotel in St George's Bay is one of the hotels being used for mandatory quarantine of incoming travellers from dark red zone countries 50 new COVID-19 cases were registered on Tuesday, figures published by the health ministry show. No new deaths were regis- tered in the last 24-hours, with the total number of deaths standing at 449. Active cases stand at 747 after 26 recoveries were registered. There are currently 32 coro- navirus patients being cared for at Mater Dei Hospital, of whom five are in ITU. Until yesterday, 806,726 vac- cine doses were administered, of which 2,955 are booster dos- es. Five patients in ITU, 50 new infections registered PRELIMINARY MARKET CONSULTATION The Ministry for Tourism and Consumer Protection hereby notifies interested parties that it is issuing a PRELIMINARY MARKET CONSULTATION (PMC) for the provision of services to design and develop a Cost Benefit Analysis addressing digital investment in the Tourism Sector across the Maltese Islands (Ref: MTCP 01/21). The PMC document can be downloaded from etenders.gov.mt. Response to the PMC is to be submitted through etenders.gov.mt by not later than Monday, 4th October 2021 at 10 am (GMT+2). For any queries you can send an email on digitaltourism@gov.mt MINISTRY FOR TOURISM AND CONSUMER PROTECTION