At last! Deputy PM to host 2pm press conference with protocols for standing events expected

On Thursday afternoon at 2pm, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne, together with National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government Minister Jose Herrera will be addressing a press conference, where protocols for standing events are expected to be revealed.

Standing events will be permitted from Monday, 6th September, capped at 100 fully vaccinated persons. Such events have not been permitted since July 2020, and the sector has been left particularly angered after the Government initially gave 16th August as the target date, however this was pushed back due to COVID case numbers.

Government announced the resumption of standing events for over a week, on 24th August, and has been saying that protocols will be revealed “in the coming days” since then.

Last Tuesday, in a statement on social media, the Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA) criticised the lack of any details regarding how the events will be permitted, saying: “We keep on repeating the same message that our industry needs sufficient planning time.”

Those planning to take immediate advantage of the rule relaxation will need the mandatory standards and guidelines to be released as soon as possible in order to plan for logistics.

As things stand, it is clear that only 100 fully vaccinated persons will be permitted to attend the events, but further than that, few details have been released.

The Government and health authorities have repeatedly come under fire for the last-minute manner in which they often release COVID protocols for reopening.

In May, with restaurants finally permitted to reopen for limited in-house dining, official protocols setting out mandatory standards were only released four days before the outlets were permitted to reopen.

Likewise for weddings, which were abruptly banned earlier this year, and which require a particularly large amount of foreplanning to deliver, details about their reopening in June remained scant until the very last minute.