The health minister has blamed the pandemic for a huge drop in the share of people reporting that they exercise and eat healthily.

In a survey carried out between November 2019 and April 2020, only a fifth of respondents said they had exercised for at least 150 minutes a week or consumed at least five fruits and vegetables a day.

Social activity during the pandemic slowed down and so did physical activity- Health minister Chris Fearne

When the survey was held five years earlier, a much higher proportion, 42.7% of women and 45.1% of men, had reported exercising and eating healthily.

The drop was one of the key reasons that Malta slipped down a European league table on health.

Asked to comment on Malta’s performance, Chris Fearne on Thursday downplayed the issue, saying the survey was carried out in the first months of the pandemic.

Malta recorded its first case of COVID-19 on March 7, when a 12-year-old Italian girl and her parents tested positive for the virus. The country went into a partial lockdown later that month.

However, Fearne said that the pandemic started in December 2019, when the World Health Organisation was first notified of a cluster of cases in China.

“One has to be careful when comparing to the situation before the pandemic,” he said. “Social activity during the pandemic slowed down and so did physical activity as more people stayed home. Some also ate unhealthy foods,” Fearne said.

The minister said that, nonetheless, the authorities should still monitor such figures. Exercise, he said, has both physical and mental benefits and the public will continue to be urged to exercise.

“In fact, one of the measures we plan to introduce is that we help instil in young people that exercise is important. Instead of one or two PE lessons we will have daily sessions for schoolchildren and excuses like forgetting the PE kit will not be tolerated,” he added.