COVID spike sees several BOV branches temporarily closed, others with limited service

Bank of Valletta (BOV) has warned the public that due to a number of employees currently positive to COVID or in quarantine, service in several branches are being impacted.

According to BOV’s website, as of Monday morning, its branches in Balluta, Floriana, Marsa and St Paul’s Bay are temporarily closed until further notice.

Its Cospicua branch is temporarily offering cashier service only, while non-cashier services are available, by appointment only, at its Marsaxlokk, Mqabba, Msida, and Skyparks branches.

Data by Malta’s Superintendence of Public Health shows that the number of active cases, as of Sunday 3rd April, stood at 6,910, a record for 2022 so far.

A combination of COVID restrictions being eased, a highly-contagious subvariant of Omicron, and a general election campaign lasting until end-March are being blamed for this latest spike.

Two weeks ago, as the spike in cases continued to grow, BusinessNow.mt reached out to several businesses to understand whether operations were being impacted. Most said they had experienced increased cancellations and no-shows, however reports of staff shortages were less pronounced.

Malta Chamber President, Marisa Xuereb has commented that while more people are reporting sick due to being COVID positive, the elminiation of quarantine for vaccinated non-household contacts, and the reduction of quarantine for fully vaccinated COVID positive cases and primary contacts, had “significantly” reduced COVID-related absenteeism.

As numbers continue to swell however, some businesses are starting to feel the impact, as evidenced by BOV.

And, despite this latest spike, Health Minister Chris Fearne on Monday announced further lifting of COVID measures, such as allowing a negative PCR test or a recovery certificate for those without a valid vaccine certificate travelling to Malta from a red-list country from Tuesday 12th April