Malta has just recorded three regrettable milestones in its fight against COVID-19: over 300 people have now died from the virus; the youngest victim so far, a woman of 30, has succumbed to the disease; and the rolling seven-day average of daily infections jumped past 200 for the first time since the pandemic began.
This worrying trend continued on Sunday with another record reached in the number of new cases – 263.
By the department of health’s own admission, the unprecedented spike is being fuelled by new variants of the virus. Because travellers to Malta are only tested at random, with no quarantine restrictions imposed on arrivals, the importation and spread of these variants was inevitable.
One may argue that with our vaccination programme in full swing, does it matter? Granted, Malta can take pride that it is administering jabs, both first and second doses, at a faster pace than its EU partners.
However, it is severely constrained by one important factor. The European Commission badly botched its acquisition and distribution strategy for COVID-19 vaccines.
Malta can only get its share per capita from a limited and delayed supply, so it cannot vaccinate the population much faster than it is doing now.
Compounding this factor in the European Union was an active misinformation campaign by several countries that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is not effective among the elderly, leading to doubts among many about taking it.
This failure of guidance is now being acknowledged and corrected, which can only help speed up the roll-out when supply problems are overcome.
That we vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, is the only way we will beat this novel corona-virus pandemic.
It goes without saying that the more people inoculated, the fewer will be infected and the less likely further, more resistant strains of COVID-19 will develop.
In the meantime, until a large enough proportion of the community are vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, the focus needs to be on curtailing the spread of the virus in order to save people’s lives and prevent long-term health issues from developing in others.
Despite the successful vaccination drive so far, there are many thousands of elderly and other vulnerable people yet to receive a first dose. Complacency is uncalled for.
This is where the government’s decision to loosen restrictions, rather than tighten them for a few short weeks, makes little sense. It is not as if Malta is under any form of lockdown from which we are desperate to escape.
Nearly all our European neighbours came to the conclusion that further restrictions are necessary. We did not. We now have a daily infection rate per capita greater than practically all of them, including the worst hit such as the United Kingdom.
The irony is that there are no good economic reasons for this loosening.
Rather the opposite. By allowing the virus free rein – an opportunity the variants especially will gladly exploit – Malta will drag out the economic agony further. And more lives will be lost, more families will be shattered.
Ironic, too, is that the health minister, Chris Fearne, has given relaxation of social distancing as one factor behind the latest spike. Yet, this is precisely what the government is messaging people to do by easing measures.
Given the rising figures, a review of the current policy would be well-advised as doctors are urging due to worries over hospital capacity.
The light at the end of the tunnel has grown brighter. Trying to get there too fast will only slow us down in the long run.