The critical factor to beat COVID-19 does not rest on how many social and economic measures are taken, but on the efficiency and effectiveness of enforcement efforts to ensure that basic measures are borne equally by everybody, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association said on Wednesday. 

The association was commenting shortly after the prime minister announced that restaurants have to close by 11pm throughout February. He also confirmed that bars and clubs will stay shut.

The association said the relevant authorities must be adequately resourced and instructed to ensure that the rules related to COVID-19 and licences are enforced equally across the board.

"Hotels and restaurants are already paying a hefty price due to the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic so it is important that government focuses concrete action to ensure that those betraying collective responsibility efforts are penalised, as otherwise all the sacrifices borne by law-abiding operators and citizens will serve for nothing," it said. 

"MHRA consistently supports reasonable measures which aim to ensure a balanced approach to the protection of lives and livelihoods and remains positive that as the roll out of the vaccine keeps progressing according to plan then the economy will kickstart again in the near future," it said.