Patients at Mater Dei Hospital are no longer being screened for COVID-19, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry said on Friday as the World Health Organisation finally lifted its global health emergency.

Over the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic killed millions of people, wreaked economic havoc and deepened inequalities.

Mater Dei Hospital said it took the decision after the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) issued updated guidance on the management of COVID-19 in situations where the prevalence of infections in the community had dropped significantly.

Over the past weeks, Malta saw a reported rate of fewer than five cases per 100,000 population, with a subsequent reduction in hospital admissions.

“As a result, over the past week, several policy amendments have been undertaken at Mater Dei Hospital. Patients are no longer routinely being screened for COVID-19 on admission or before operations, unless they show symptoms of a respiratory infection. Similarly, hospital contacts of COVID-19 patients no longer need to be quarantined,” the spokesperson said.

He said there was also a revision of the parent visitation policy at the Neonatal Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (NPICU) which has now been amended to increase the number of visiting hours.

The iconic photograph of two ITU nurses, Doreen Zammit and Charmaine Cauchi in full PPE gear, at Mater Dei Hospital during the pandemic.

Mask-wearing in hospital settings will continue to be enforced, and anyone visiting the hospital must don a mask as a precaution.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Friday that it was “with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency”. He estimated that the pandemic had killed “at least 20 million” people – nearly three times the under seven million deaths officially recorded.

The move came after the WHO’s independent emergency committee on the COVID crisis agreed during its 15th meeting on Thursday that the crisis no longer merited the organisation’s highest level of alert.

But, Tedros warned, the decision did not mean the danger was over, cautioning that the emergency status could be reinstated if the situation changes.

“The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about,” he said.

The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard- WHO chief

Mater Dei’s decision came earlier, and the screening was stopped as from May 1. The screening was one of a few remaining COVID-19 measures at Mater Dei.

Health Minister Chris Fearne noted the WHO decision by paying tribute to Malta's COVID-19 victims and emergency responders.

"Our thoughts are with the 835 persons who lost their lives in Malta and the thousands of healthcare workers who worked tirelessly to protect our health," he wrote.

According to the latest information collected by the Health Department, last updated on Tuesday, Malta registered 835 deaths due to COVID-19 and had 118,524 reported cases.

There are currently 229 active cases of the virus, with 83 being reported in the last week of April.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Mater Dei was the first to introduce strict measures in an attempt to control the spread of COVID-19. Within days of the first few cases being detected, the hospital descaled its normal operations and postponed all non-urgent surgeries.

Patients had also been urged to not visit the hospital unless absolutely necessary.

By April of that year, all visits to the hospital had been stopped. These resumed a few weeks later but were reduced in order to avoid too many people in wards.

The first COVID vaccine started being administred in Malta in the last week of December 2020.