The news conference given by Health Minister Chris Fearne and superintendent Charmaine Gauci on Friday afternoon was the nightmare scenario thousands of businesses and travellers were dreading.
Just a month into the reopening of the travel sector, Malta has effectively banned travel for anybody who is not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. It has also shut down language schools.
The decision comes at the worst possible period for a crucial motor of our economy – tourism – which was seeing a ray of hope after 16 months in the doldrums.
The move comes after Malta saw COVID-19 figures quadruple in the space of a few days, most of the increases a result of tourism, despite the fact that all visitors were requested to show a vaccine certificate and negative PCR test upon entry.
The statistics are depressing considering the effort and sacrifice put in to reduce the new cases to negligible. The measures will rightly be considered as extreme by thousands of travellers.
It is terribly unfair on the thousands who were planning their holidays and are now forced to cancel through no fault of their own but because they simply do not have access to a vaccine. Many will lose their deposits. Air Malta said on Saturday it had faced 13 days of consecutive cancellations from its London route.
The least the tourism minister could have done on Saturday is offer a basic apology to those forced to cancel.
But in the circumstances, the authorities are stuck between a rock and a hard place. The short-term pain of such a drastic measure could also be the only solution of having some form of tourism for the coming months. In reality, nobody is a winner here.
Whether Malta can indeed be promoted as one of the safest destinations in the world, as Fearne told the BBC, remains to be seen. Let’s put things into perspective.
While Malta’s vaccination programme should be lauded for its speed and efficiency, the situation in most other countries is different, with around 44 per cent being fully vaccinated within the EU.
Some countries have barely started vaccinating their citizens. Keeping some social distancing restrictions in place, such as banning unmonitored mass events, will mean that those persons carrying the Delta variant will not spark a public health disaster.
It is very difficult to know with certainty what the correct decision is, without the benefit of hindsight and perspective
The key issue remains enforcement. While we are still restricted to welcome the number of people inside our homes, we continue seeing groups of youngsters refusing to wear masks and partying in enclosed spaces. While theatres are being forced to operate in super-strict conditions, the police appear reluctant to clamp down on revellers breaching the law in areas like Paceville.
Friday’s announcement is bound to create multiple headaches but the health authorities need to step up gear in their means of communication, which remain inefficient at best, contradictory at worse.
It is pointless urging prospective travellers to send e-mails with their queries when their questions are not being answered. It is pointless urging people to call 145 when we keep getting reports of calls not being picked up.
It is pointless urging people to get their vaccine certificates when some are still finding it impossible to download. It is pointless telling thousands of foreign residents to get vaccinated if Identity Malta is unable or unwilling to provide them with the documentation they need to do so.
Ultimately, the vast majority of countries are desperately trying to strike the right balance between the economy and health. Many, like the UK, are opting to drop all restrictions despite the high numbers of infections. Malta is adopting a hardline approach.
The reality is that very few, if any countries, have got it right. It is very difficult to know with certainty what the correct decision is, without the benefit of hindsight and perspective.