Public health consultant Kenneth Grech should be back with the COVID-19 team in “three to four weeks”, Times of Malta is informed, although the government is yet to commit as to when the reinstatement will happen.

Grech, a consultant and lecturer who, in recent months, served as one of public health chief Charmaine Gauci’s right-hand men, was told last week that his services within the response team were no longer needed.

Instead, Grech has been redeployed to work on the national health strategy, a job the government says he had been doing before the virus pandemic hit the island last March.

Following widespread outrage that also included doctors declaring an industrial dispute, Times of Malta revealed the government would reinstate Grech once his work on the national strategy is completed. No timeframes have been provided by the government, though it continues to insist that Grech was never dismissed but redeployed.

Government is reluctant to provide details on timelines in case these change

Times of Malta is now informed that Grech’s work on the national strategy is expected to take between three and four weeks, with informed sources saying he would be back in his old post with the public health team soon after.

Questions on the matter sent to the health ministry in recent days have remained unanswered. It is understood the government is reluctant to provide details on timelines in case these change.

The decision to move Grech made headlines after it emerged that, in the run-up of the reopening of schools after Christmas, he had advised the government as well as other education stakeholders to hold off resuming lessons.

The sources said he had also emailed Frank Fabri, the permanent secretary at the education ministry, as well as representatives of Church schools giving them the same advice.

The information was then leaked to the teachers’ union and a two-day strike was called after the government refused to order schools to stay shut and revert to online lessons.

That strike was eventually called off and schools reopened again last week.