Mass Events Trigger Malta's Second Peak After Initial Successful Pandemic Suppression
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COMMENTARY
Mass Events Trigger Malta’s Second Peak After Initial Successful Pandemic Suppression Sarah Cuschieri1 · Martin Balzan2 · Charmaine Gauci3 · Steve Aguis4 · Victor Grech5 Accepted: 10 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The second COVID-19 wave is sweeping the globe as restrictions are lifted. Malta, the ‘poster child of Europe’s COVID-19 first wave success’ also fell victim shortly after it welcomed the first tourists on 1st of July 2020. Only four positive cases were reported over the successive 15 days. Stability was disrupted when two major mass events were organized despite various health professional warnings. In a matter of few just days, daily cases rose to two-digit figures, with high community transmission, a drastic rise in active cases, and a rate per hundred thousand in Europe second only to Spain. Frontliners were swamped with swabbing requests while trying to sustain robust case management, contact tracing and follow-up. Indeed, the number of hospitalizations and the need for intensive ventilation increased. Despite the initial cases were among young adults, within weeks a small spill off on the more elderly population was observed. Restrictions were re-introduced including mandatory mask wearing in specific locations and capping of the total number of people in a single gathering. Malta is an island and the potential for containment would have been relatively simple and effective and permitting mass gatherings was unwise. Protecting the health of the population should take centre stage while carrying out extensive testing, contact tracing and surveillance. Containment and mitigation along with public cooperation is the key to curbing resurgences especially with the influenza season around the corner. Keywords Coronavirus · Pandemics · Economy · Prevention · Population health · Population surveillance · Malta
Introduction The seminal year 2020 revealed humanity’s vulnerability to pandemics as the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID19) spread from Wuhan, China, in December 2019 to the rest of the world resulting in a global World Health Organisation Public Health Emergency [1], World Health Organization [2]. Every country struggled to contain the first viral wave, * Sarah Cuschieri [email protected] 1
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine & Surgery, University of Malta, Rm 425, Biomedical Building, Msida, Malta
2
Department of Respiratory, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta
3
Health Regulations, Office of the Superintendence of Public Health, Pieta, Malta
4
Chief Operating Officer (COO), Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta
5
Department of Pediatrics, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta
with some countries showing more capability and resilience than others. The small European country of Malta was well prepared for the first wave and exhibited a laudable and successful containment effort originating from the collective efforts of the Public Health authorities, the government along with the general population
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