A moment silence was held this morning in all Malta’s pharmacies following the deadliest week for COVID-19.

Kamra Tal-Ispizjara Ta’ Malta-flagged the spike in deaths as clear institutional failures and “a serious indictment of how government and others have and are not protecting the most vulnerable of our society.”

There are now 23 deaths relating to the novel coronavirus, six of which occurred last week. Yesterday, an 83-year-old patient and 98-year-old man died, while 86-year-old man passed away last Friday and three patients, aged 72, 86 and 85, died from COVID-19 last Saturday.

It warned that Malta’s elderly are “starting to fall like flies” because public health experts were ignored when lockdown was lifted, in June, and that “Inconsistent messages were disseminated to the population by sectors outside health”.

The coming influenza season may yield a worsening situation, the chamber continued.