Malta Enterprise CEO Kurt Farrugia said on Friday that 1,600 e-mails sent to applicants seeking confirmation about details they submitted for the COVID-19 support scheme had not yet been answered. 

Addressing a press conference, Farrugia said an average of 200 applications daily were still being received. 

Farrugia said just under half of the applications received to date had been successfully processed. 

The Malta Enterprise CEO said evaluations of the applications received had started over the past week-and-a-half, as an automated IT structure had to be put in place to help process them. 

Economy Minister Silvio Schembri said Malta Enterprise had dealt with 48,000 queries about the government support schemes.

Schembri said €148,000 in grants had been approved for the teleworking scheme, €384,000 for quarantine leave and €10.5 million for the wage supplement scheme. 

Air Malta

Fielding multiple questions about Air Malta, Schembri said the government was trying to find the best solution for both the airline and its employees. 

He denied that the airline had backed down on an initial threat to make hundreds of pilots and cabin crew members redundant. 

Schembri said negotiations with the two relevant unions were still ongoing, as the 30-day window allowed for by the Department of Industrial Relations prior to any redundancies being made official was still open. 

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