Experts are working on a virus exit strategy so that Malta can start easing certain measures in a staggered fashion and monitor the effect, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Thursday. 

He said that as long as the numbers remained low, the country could start looking at easing certain measures but it will have to be done gradually, in the same manner they were introduced. 

Speaking on television programme Xtra on TVM, Fearne said he was pleased that the effect COVID-19 had on the country so far has been well within the plan, both in terms of number as well as the way the pandemic hit Malta. 
Fearne said the number of new infections over the past few weeks was “encouraging” but stressed that keeping them low depended on whether people continue following health guidelines to curb the virus spread. 

Malta has registered a total of 412 cases since the first case in March. Three people have died while 82 patients have recovered. 

“We’ve said this from the beginning. We wanted it to hit us slowly so that our health system could cope with the demand and that is what happened. The numbers are manageable. It takes longer to go through it but at least you won’t have people dying because they did not have access to healthcare. This happened in other countries. The figures are encouraging and we need to keep them to a minimum. It all depends on how much people observe the regulations,” he said.

Asked about returning to normality, Fearne said this could be done gradually. “We cannot flick our fingers and go back to how we were before. We are confident that if the number remains small, we can remove measures and monitor them. We are studying which measures can be removed and then we can start easing the measures in the next few weeks. It all depends on how much people cooperate with the remaining measures so that we can monitor the situation,” he said.

He, however, added that everything could change in a day if people did not cooperate.