Author: SME Chamber

Malta’s is at the front to take these steps with additional security, having the backing of Malta’s successful vaccination strategy

SME Chamber calls again to immediately revise Malta’s Quarantine rules to 5 days for those testing positive only, in line with the recommendations of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

The way the illness has developed with the Omicron variant, which is now the prevalent variant in Malta, offers such a possibility and Malta needs to move fast, like other countries are doing before circumstances change, as sometimes happens with new variants, and Malta would end up missing out on this important window of opportunity.  

The Omicron variant, whilst still considered of concern, has been recognised as milder by the major health institutions such as WHO. This, coupled with the fact that Malta has the best record when it comes to vaccination take-up and booster take up, puts Malta in a position to operate closer to normality and reduce the most difficult measures which are causing harm to the economy and society. 

The side effects of such a long quarantine period has great repercussions on mental health and damages our social fabric.  The prevention of persons from interacting, families from supporting each other as they would usually do and making ones’ ability to earn their livelihood more difficult requires serious consideration.  

Businesses are reporting great difficulties in dealing with quarantine and this comes with a big cost for workers unable to work online. The human resources difficulties our country was facing before the manifestation of thousands of quarantines has made the problem impossible. Businesses cannot cope with quarantine and this is forcing businesses to rescind on their operation. 

Switzerland and the UK have just yesterday announced an immediate reduction of the quarantine periods to 5 days. Greece took this step before, on the 1^st of January. Ireland, Spain and Slovenia reduced their 10 days to 7 days as of the start of this year. Italy has totally scrapped quarantine for any close contact if the person is vaccinated. 

These countries have all based their decisions on the recommendation of the CDC and in view of the challenges their countries are facing, which are outweighing the current risk posed by the Omicron variant. As such, whilst keeping a recommended level of quarantine, since Omicron is still of concern, they are reducing the quarantine periods to avoid doing more harm than good. 

Malta’s is at the front to take these steps with additional security, having the backing of Malta’s successful vaccination strategy which is incomparable to the levels of other countries. Moving towards the CDC recommendation in the immediate is therefore essential.

During today’s meeting of the Employment Relations Board, where the CEO of the Chamber of SMEs is a Board Member, held with the participation of the Superintendence of Public Health, the Data Protection Commissioner and the CEO of the Health and Safety Authority, Ms Agius Mamo presented the Chamber’s proposal to take up the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s latest recommendation to reduce quarantine.

The Chamber of SMEs CEO insisted that ‘the Chamber is not seeking to do the work of the health authorities, however such important developments coming from a recognised institution like the CDC cannot be ignored. Recommendations by the CDC were taken up before by our country, based on the consideration that they were well studied and based on science. Given how negatively our economy and society are being affected by the difficult quarantine requirements, Malta cannot ignore such an important recommendation.’

During the Board meeting the Chamber of SMEs insisted that the level of disruption at the workplace and the grave side effects of the quarantine, require the rules to be revisited. The conditions of being isolated and locked inside are hard on anyone to bare and only to be kept if absolutely necessary. The Chamber also warned that the system is risking a collapse since people, faced with the hard quarantine conditions, are increasingly not reporting their primary contacts when possible and are taking things into their own hands and catering for their illness in private without any official test.

During the meeting the Malta Chamber of SMEs also expressed its disagreement with the latest change in policy of not issuing a quarantine notice specifying all the individuals under quarantine and the duration of their quarantine. The Chamber emphasised that the system is confusing for employers and employees. Work out the increase in quarantine is far from easy carrying out the necessary checks and confirmations will increase the bureaucratic burden, in addition to giving space to abuse.

The Malta Chamber of SMEs therefore called on the health authorities to revisit the quarantine notification system. Regulations which are not implementable or enforceable must be changed.