Secondary contacts of confirmed COVID cases who are vaccinated against the virus should not be put under mandatory 14-day quarantine, the Malta Chamber urged on Friday. 

In a statement, it called on the health authorities to rethink the quarantine measures which, it said, should be focused on a risk-based approach for fully vaccinated people. 

"Over 81 per cent of the adult population in Malta is fully vaccinated against COVID and a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people are less likely to carry symptomatic infection or transmit the virus to others.

The Malta Chamber said it believes it is totally unreasonable to put these people under a mandatory 14-day quarantine when they are secondary contacts of confirmed cases.

Employers are bearing the brunt of all this, especially where people cannot work from home, it warned.

Entire households of vaccinated people in quarantine

It claimed "entire households of fully vaccinated people" have been put into quarantine because one of the children, who has already taken the first jab, attends a summer school programme where another child tested positive. 

“If we really believe that vaccines break the chain of contagion, we need to be pragmatic and shouldn't be placing fully vaccinated secondary contacts in quarantine,” chamber president Marisa Xuereb said.

The chamber also noted that quarantine letters are being issued to all members of a household without identifying anyone in particular.

"Clearly, no checks are being made on whether the members of that household are vaccinated or not."

Reduced productive capacity

The chamber is "seriously concerned" about how this practice was "greatly reducing" the productive capacity of business operators.  

"On one hand employers are being asked to encourage their employees to get vaccinated, while on the other hand the authorities are not treating fully vaccinated employees any differently from those who are still refusing to be vaccinated.

"The Malta Chamber urges authorities not to take unreasonable decisions and knee-jerk reactions."