The Malta College of Pathologists has expressed apprehension at the lifting of COVID-19 measures.

In a statement, it said it was the prompt introduction of such restrictions, when other countries hesitated for economic reasons, that was the main reason why Malta was so successful in avoiding the scenarios witnessed in places like Bergamo and New York.

The college said a prudent exit strategy should involve phased scale-downs, spaced sufficiently apart so that if cases started to increase, there would be the possibility to identify which measure was linked to the increase and reverse it.

It, therefore, found it difficult to understand how the authorities decided to remove all flight restrictions on July 15 when the first tentative flights would have started only a fortnight earlier, which was exactly the maximum incubation period of COVID-19.

“One cannot but look at New Zealand, probably the most successful country in this pandemic, which lifted its domestic lock-down but maintained almost universal restrictions to air travel in the understanding that – as an island – this was the main route for re-introduction of the virus into that country.”

While it understood that the country needed to run a fine line between the health-related impacts of the disease and the equally disastrous lack of economic activity, such a balancing act could only be achieved through wide consultation with experts in both fields and of qualified risk assessments.

It said it was not aware of the input of health specialists in these deliberations. 
It encouraged the government to publish the risk assessments that informed the decisions to lift the public health emergency and remove practically all COVID-19 precautions.

This would provide the needed reassurances to the medical profession and the front liners who would need to repeat their efforts of the past months should a second wave materialise.

Malta, it noted, was one of the highest densely populated countries in the world and it appeared that presence of immunity to COVID-19 among the Maltese could still be as low as 1% or less.

While this was testament to the success of the preventative measures in the past months, it meant that practically all the population remained susceptible to the virus.

Therefore, any laissez-fare attitude from politicians or the public could have disastrous consequences.

“It would be a pity if all the achievements of the past three months were to be lost in the haste to return back to a ‘normal’ which - at this stage - does not appear possible until a vaccine is finally available,” the college said.