The Malta Association of Public Health Medicine has warned of a deteriorating situation in hospitals because of the increase in COVID-19.

"We now have the highest number of COVID-19 patients in ITU since the start of the pandemic, several of them under the age of 60. Many dozens of people are hospitalised, with several who are young and were completely healthy before getting infected with the COVID-19 virus. 44 people have already died
from this virus," the association warned,

"Operations are being cancelled due to lack of capacity. The laboratory is running the highest number of tests daily since the start of the pandemic," the association added. 

The association regretted that three weeks had passed since the public health authorities made recommendations to the government on measures which could curb this resurgence. These recommendations had fallen on deaf ears.

"We now have had a record number of new cases (563 new cases in the last 7 days), and the rate of new infections continues to rise, matching and exceeding levels of other European countries. If our advice had been heeded, as it was in April, we would not be in this situation," the association said. 
 
The association reiterated calls for people to keep social distance, wash hands and wear masks.

It also repeated advice made by other bodies for teleworking, keeping groups of people small, training alone rather than in groups, using online shopping as far as possible, avoiding events and taking the flu vaccine.

This, it said, was not the time to organise social events for Halloween or Christmas. 

The association said it is urging the authorities to take the right decisions now and implement targeted measures which will slow down transmission by limiting activities where the largest clusters are being reported.