The spike in Covid-19 cases seen in recent weeks has resulted in Malta having the third highest number cases per capita in the European Union according to data gathered and published by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC).In data published...

Workers at the Covid-19 case management and contact tracing units are "drained and tired" and the whole process is up to nine days behind, three workers have told The Malta Independent on Sunday.Their account of the situation contrasts starkly with s...

A “cherished” church organ will be transferred to Malta for it to be restored and installed at the Basilica of Christ the King in Paola. The church organ belonged to an Anglican church; Holy Trinity church in Sunderland, however this...

LGBTIQ+ people are not an ideology, MP Rosianne Cutajar said, as she welcomed an initiative to make the EU an LGBTIQ Freedom Zone. Prime Minister Robert Abela also welcomed the intiative, saying that “equality and human rights are a fundamental...

The Covid-19 reproduction number, also known as the r-factor, is currently 1.4, statistician Vincent Marmara told The Malta Independent on Sunday in his weekly video blog.The reproduction number of the virus is one of the key figures which ...

268 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Sunday as another patient passed away while positive for the virus, health authorities said.An 89-year-old man passed away at Mater Dei Hospital in the previous 24 hours, becoming Malta’s 351st victim ...

Although a number of medical specialist associations have welcomed the recent measures to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus, they have insisted that household gatherings are curtailed over the Easter period. The associations stated that only...

Activist Godfrey Leone Ganado stoked anger after writing degrading and misogynistic insults at TVM Head of News Norma Saliba on a Facebook comments board on Sunday.Leone Ganado commented below a live broadcast of an interview Saliba was conducting wi...

All the countries around the globe are in the race to reach herd immunity by vaccinating against Covid-19 so that no more people succumb to the virus, and so that life could return to normal. Some countries have yet to start, while some - if they man...

Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday that that “despite the challenges that the country and its people are facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the reality that we will defeat and overcome it, still exists.” Abela was speaking ...

Ireland has temporarily halted its use of the AstraZeneca jab after some reports of blood clots in vaccinated people.Ireland's Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, recommended "the administration of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca be temporaril...

Stronger border screening at all of Malta’s entry points could have kept the UK variant out of the country, PN leader Bernard Grech said.The UK variant today is the main driver behind the record increase in Covid-19 cases in Malta, with health ...

The Chamber of Advocates was 'kept in the dark' by the government when it introduced the Bill to regulate the Legal Profession, the President and Secretary General of the Chamber said, adding that what is contained in the Bill is very different to wh...

While all children have had their learning impacted by Covid-19, 14-year-old Carla Cutajar remains one of the few children who hasn't attended school in a year. She hasn't seen her friends, participated in any dance classes, participated in any swimm...

The historic city of Ħaż-Żebbuġ is one of the oldest settlements in Malta. Said to be named after the large olive groves that were once to be found in the area, its motto 'Semper Virens', or 'ever green', aptly describes the beaut...

298 new cases of Covid-19 were found overnight, and four patients have died, the health authorities said.The number of active cases currently stands at 3,144 and the total number of cases is 26,267.The patients who died were; 2 males aged 72 and 74 w...

An American man died on Friday evening after he fell inside his own residence in Senglea.The accident took place in an apartment block in Misraħ Dom Mawru Inguanez at around 8pm, the police said.The man, 59, tripped and fell down the stairs. He ...

The government should invest in a swab testing machine for Gozo and should also set up a dedicated contact tracing team on the island, the Nationalist Party said.In a statement signed by PN MP Chris Said, the PN said the government’s “irr...

Valletta: New British Dispensary, 109/110,St John Street; Marsa: San Raffael Pharmacy, 247, Qormi Road; Qormi: Pinto Pharmacy, 43, St Sebastian Street; Birkirkara: Rational Pharmacy, 74/75, Valley Road; Msida: Mayer Pharmacy, 33, Ta’ Xbiex Seaf...

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Many of the people appointed to prominent roles by Joseph Muscat, or who the former Prime Minister surrounded himself with, have been embroiled in serious scandals and have been forced to step down in disgrace.Many of them have been, or still are, th...

The leaders of Austria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Bulgaria are calling for talks among European Union leaders about the distribution of vaccines within the 27-nation bloc.Austrian media reported Saturday that the five leaders wrote a j...

A man held up a shop in Cospicua on Saturday afternoon and made off with an undisclosed amount in cash.The case took place in Triq l-Oratorju at around 1.15pm, the police said. The man, who was allegedly armed with a knife, ran off after the cas...

The Maltese Indigenous Trees and Shrubs Nursery project administered by the FKNK has been chosen by the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FACE) as project of this month of March 2021 as part of the FACE Biodiversity Manifesto.Every mo...

A new ferry route has opened between Malta and Sicily, with Gollcher Company Limited running a route between Valletta and the Sicilian city of Palermo.Gollcher Company Ltd (as Agents for Grandi Navi Veloci) announced that GNV will have three weekly s...

This week saw more seismic developments in the Daphne Caruana Galizia case, with the first testimony of Vince Muscat in court against the two Degiorgio brothers who are accused of being his co-conspirators in killing the journalist.Muscat testified a...

Following the success of the autumn migration campaign held last year, BirdLife Malta has once again launched its #onthemove campaign to encourage people to enjoy, care about and protect migrating birds.This time round, with this second campaign, Bir...

In a rare public statement, former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has said that greater effort is needed to uncover the “web of evil” that led to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.Referring to court proceedings on Thur...

Labour MEP Alfred Sant has urged EU funding programmes to support strategic investments in the area of health, a sector that urgently needs public support after years of dwindling investment and laissez-faire attitude by EU governmentsIn a statement ...

Two athletes training to qualify for the Paralympic games have taken their frustration to Facebook due to the fact that some athletes are being exempt from the Covid-19 measures whilst others have to continue abiding by all restrictive measures. ...

A 30-year-old Tunisian man has been arrested in connection with several robberies and fraud cases, the police said.The man was identified after several weeks of investigations by the St Julian’s, Valletta and Birkirkara districts.He was arreste...

The Covid-19 vaccine helpline – 145 – is completely unreachable.This newsroom has over the past week received several complaints by people who did not manage to get through to an operator on the freephone number.Over the past 24 hours, th...

In the port of Corfu in Greece, the cruise ship MSC Lirica caught fire early Friday afternoon.The starboard side of the ship (right side) was the scene of heavy smoke and flames which were clearly visible from afar. The fire seems to have originated ...

329 new cases were found over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of active cases up to 3,188 and the total number of cases so far up to 25,969, as Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci addressed her weekly briefing on Friday.Five more pati...

Vince Muscat ‘il-Koħħu’, the man serving a 15-year prison sentence for his part in the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has set Malta alight.In a five-hour testimony, the man who tracked Caruana Galizia’...

The driver at the wheel of a double-decker bus involved in a fatal accident that happened in Żurrieq three years ago was not driving under the influence of alcohol, a court has been told.Police Inspector Pierguido Saliba testified on Friday morn...

The Nationalist Party has nominated lawyer David Bonello to the new Building & Construction Authority (BCA).In a statement, the PN said that the nomination had been made by Opposition leader Bernard Grech after consultation with the party’s...

European Commissioner Helena Dalli has become a grandmother for the first time, and she dedicated a European Parliament debate to her newly born grandson Benjamin.Speaking in the European Parliament a mere two hours after Benjamin was born, Dalli rec...

The new round of Covid-19 measures announced by the government on Wednesday came rather late, but they are welcome, nonetheless.The government, facing mounting pressure and skyrocketing daily infection figures, announced the closure of schools and no...

The Permanent Commission Against Corruption has found no evidence of corruption or bribery in the BWSC contract, Times of Malta reports.The €200 million contract to extend the Delimara power station had already been investigated by the National ...

Former Economy Minister Chris Cardona has dismissed claims heard in court yesterday as "utter lies" that can easily be confirmed as such by checking official records.Testifying in court on Thursday, Vince Muscat (il-Kohhu), said he would drive Alfred...

The Notarial Council has urged the general public to act responsibly and carefully in order to avoid increasing the spread of Covid-19 to other notaries, office employees, their families and the parties themselves.The Council issued a press release w...

Free internet and computers will be provided to students in need to ensure that they continue to receive an education when schools shut their doors on Monday, Education Minister Justyne Caruana said.Schools will remain closed until after the Easter h...

The UHM Voice of the Workers has instructed public sector and public service employees who have children aged 12 and under and who have nobody to look after them during working hours to work from home.This decision has been taken in the light of the ...

A man accused of the murder of his son, Antoine, has been released on bail after spending eight months in police custody after finding a third party to act as guarantor.Salvu Dalli, 68, was accused of the wilful homicide of his son Antoine, 37, ...

There was significant anticipation ahead of the first time that Vincent Muscat – known as il-Koħħu – took the stand as a state witness in the case against Alfred and George Degiorgio on the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.The a...

Whilst Malta continues to face serious challenges in receiving relatively large numbers of asylum-seekers, this does not absolve the authorities of their international human rights obligations, the Malta Refugee Council said.It was echoing a statemen...

Vaccinations using the AstraZeneca vaccine are to go ahead as planned, the government has said.Earlier today, news broke that Malta was one of 17 EU countries to receive a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines which six countries have suspended from use afte...

The Archdiocese has published directives that come into place today, until 11 April.It said that churches can open for public worship, but they are not allowed to open for mass or other religious activities. Only funerals and weddings (in Church only...

283 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by health authorities on Thursday as four more patients have passed away while positive for the virus.During the last 24 hours, three men aged 79, 72, and 60 and an 80-year-old woman passed away at Mater Dei Ho...

Rosianne Cutajar and her political aide Charles Farrugia are being asked to refund €89,000 in brokerage fees by the owner of an Mdina property.The pair acted as brokers on the aborted sale of the property to murder suspect Yorgen Fenech in 2019....

The European Medicines Agency has authorized Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine, giving the European Union's 27 nations a fourth licensed vaccine to try to curb the pandemic amid a stalled vaccination drive in the bloc.In a de...

Schools, gyms, and non-essential shops - amongst others - will close down while travel to Gozo is also being restricted, the government has announced.In a press conference on the day that Malta reported a record-setting 510 cases of the virus, t...

Prime Minister Robert Abela has appealed for the Nationalist Party to put aside their political disputes and join forces with the Labour Party to put the common good of the Maltese first in order to control the pandemic.An emergency parliamentary ses...

Malta is one of 17 EU countries to receive a batch of AstraZeneca vaccines which six countries have suspended from use after a person died of multiple thrombosis some days after receiving a dose of the vaccine.One person died of multiple thrombosis &...

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said on Thursday that the Prime Minister should stop blaming the UK variant for the recent spike in Covid-19 cases. The government has known about the variant since December but failed to take the necessary measures, h...

The new restrictive measures announced on Wednesday by the government have piled even more economic pressure on the hospitality industry, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) said in a statement.The MHRA, as a result, has called on the...

Government discussions are underway to include Cystic Fibrosis medication in the government formulary list, Health authorities have said.The Government Formulary List Advisory Committee (GFLAC) is discussing the issue in light of Malta’s lack o...

A number of judges and magistrates are acting in breach of a Covid-19 directive issued by the Chief Justice, the Chamber of Advocates has claimed.It also said expressed concern at the fact that the law courts remain open despite the Covid-19 situatio...

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech has called on Prime Minister Robert Abela to shoulder responsibility for “his irresponsible declarations and bad decisions which led the country back to square one.”He once again called for an immediate nat...

The Council of Europe's anti-torture committee has found a number of serious problems with Malta’s migrant detention practices.In a report published on Wednesday based on a rapid reaction ad hoc visit to Malta in September 2020, the Council of ...

The Medical Association of Malta has welcomed the measures announced by the government on Wednesday, which include the closure of schools and non-essential shops.The measures were announced by Prime Minister Robert Abela amid record numbers of daily ...

Social media was buzzing these last few days over a controversy that seems to have arisen due to the fact that an individual was fined by law enforcement officials for not wearing a face mask during a picnic in a public place. As the Law stood on tha...

Doctors will now have to choose between who will live and who will die, MUMN President Paul Pace told The Malta Independent in reaction to the amount of Covid-19 cases found on Wednesday. Contacted by this newsroom, Pace’s comments were st...

Parliament will be the discussing the current situation of the Covid-19 pandemic on Thursday morning, Speaker Anglu Farrugia has ruled.Earlier, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech presented a motion requesting an urgent debate on the current Covid-19 sit...

The Malta Union of Teachers has welcomed the decision by the government to close all education institutions from Monday.The government announced this evening that schools will close down on Friday and will remain shut until after the Easter holidays....

The Chamber of Commerce has described the measures announced by the government on Wednesday night as necessary but as ones which will take a toll on Malta’s “already suffering business community.” “The Malta Chamber, as i...

A Filipino man was grievously injured in a traffic accident in Naxxar on Monday afternoon.The accident took place at around 4pm in Triq ir-Ramla.The crash involved a Toyota Dyna driven by the Filipino, 39, and a Renault Master driven by a 37-year-old...

All football competitions are being suspended as from Thursday until 11 April, the Malta Football Association said.The MFA said it is keeping regular contact with the Ministry responsible for sport as it continues to monitor the situation very closel...

This entire handling of the Covid pandemic needs to be depoliticised and handled by the experts. Let’s remove all propaganda and responsibly agree on the best way forward. Surely the Prime Minister can even take the Leader of the Opposition in ...

510 cases of Covid-19 were reported by authorities on Wednesday, smashing the country’s daily record of cases.The numbers are a significant increase over the previous record – which was 362 cases found last week.Two more people have also ...

The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) President, Martin Balzan has strongly appealed that the public should be responsible enough to take the situation in their own hands and stay at home, rather than wait for the government or health authorities to...

Neither the police, nor the magistrate leading the inquiry into the allegations surrounding Adrian Delia's alleged money laundering in Soho had sent for Delia, the politician told the public inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia on Wednes...

Opposition Leader Bernard Grech has denied an allegation by Labour Whip Glenn Bedingfield that he had violated mandatory Covid-19 quarantine. This statement comes following Bedingfield’s allegation that PN Leader Grech broke mandatory quar...

PN leader Bernard Grech has called for an immediate national public health emergency to be declared as Covid-19 cases continue to rise to record numbers.In a short video statement on Wednesday afternoon – an hour or so after Malta recorded a re...

A long and crowded queue waiting to get vaccinated against Covid-19 was seen at the University of Malta despite social distancing measures. The University of Malta is one of the many vaccination hubs on the island where people can go to receive ...

The Malta Association of Public Health Medicine (MAPHM) has called on the health authorities and government to take “swift and evidence-based actions” immediately. This comes following the record-breaking 510 positive cases which wer...

UPDATE: The Prime Minister will be addressing a press conference at 6pm.Despite rumours spreading on social media about an impending press conference by the Prime Minister, there is so far no official confirmation that Robert Abela will be addressing...

Jamie Vella and Robert Agius had offered to buy Vince Muscat’s silence by paying the convicted murderer’s wife and daughter €1,500 per month.The offer was turned down and Muscat went on to reach a plea bargain agreement by admitting ...

The fifth and last available makeshift Intensive Therapy Unit has been opened and is already full, and ITU resources could run out “within hours,” the association of anaesthesiologists said.AAM also warned that Malta is “losing the ...

The Chamber of Advocates has come out with a warning over a Bill making its way through Parliament which, if passed, they say will allow the imposition of criminal sanctions without due process."The Chamber of Advocates has taken note of the amendmen...

The Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) has filed an industrial dispute against the government after today’s record-breaking 510 positive cases were recorded.In a statement, the MUT said that the UK variant is an ever-growing threat for children in s...

The government has been 'totally silent' regarding whether primary and secondary schools will be allowed to go online, the president of the Union of Professional Educators (UPE), Graham Sansone, told The Malta Independent. Teacher's unions have ...

There is no discussion or consultation taking place on the eve of the election for the University of Malta Rector and his team, the Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing (FSW) Professor Andrew Azzopardi told The Malta Independent.The election is s...

No one has been untouched. Not the Michigan woman who awakened one morning, her wife dead by her side. Not the domestic worker in Mozambique, her livelihood threatened by the virus. Not the North Carolina mother who struggled to keep her busines...

Over 400 new cases of Covid-19 are expected to be registered today, this newsroom is informed.This would again break the record high number of daily cases. The current record stands at 362 on 4 March.Recently the government introduced a number of new...

Women make up half of the population, but they had to fight so many struggles in order to achieve the level of equality seen today. There is still more to be done.The Euopean Commission has put forward a very impotant proposal regarding gender pay ga...

 In February, passenger traffic through the Malta International Airport dipped to an all-time low since the airport’s reopening to commercial flights in July 2020. Totalling just 27,524 passenger movements, February traffic registered a dr...

248 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by authorities on Tuesday as the number of vaccine doses that have been administered so far has exceeded 100,000.An 88-year-old man meanwhile passed away at his private residence while Covid-positive, making hi...

Robert Agius, known as Tal-Maksar, had acquired a vehicle similar to the one used by Daphne Caruana Galizia so that her executors could train on how to defeat the car lock.The information was divulged in court this morning by Superintendent Keit...

The proposed bill by Minister for Justice, Equality and Governance Edward Zammit Lewis regarding the appointment of permanent secretaries is not enough to change the state of the country, and it will need to be amended, PN MP Joe Ellis said.Zammit Le...

With the pandemic and all, the current state of affairs is not easy to manage. True, we are at the stage where the unrolling of the vaccination programme is starting to pick up. However, there are new variants that seem to be even more contagious mak...

The government’s wage supplement support scheme will continue until the end of 2021, with the government continuing to provide monetary support to the businesses which are worst hit by the pandemic, Enterprises Minister Miriam Dalli announced o...

55% of the 23,000 people considered to be vulnerable have had the first Covid-19 vaccine dose administered, Health Minister Chris Fearne said in Parliament.The minister was responding to a Parliamentary Question posed by PN MP Claudette Buttigieg.&nb...

Speaker Anglu Farrugia ruled that there was no abuse of parliamentary privilege by Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne when he accused PN MPs of asking him to jump vaccination queue.PN MP David Thake asked for a ruling on the matte...

A 30-year-old man has been sentenced to four years in prison, as his appeal for the court to reduce his sentence in connection to a domestic violence case against his partner and daughter was denied.The court found him guilty of grievously injuring h...

Buckingham Palace issued a statement Tuesday, saying the family was "saddened" to learn of the struggles that Harry and Meghan revealed this week - and that they would be taken very seriously.The statement is the first comment by the palace following...

Teleworking and remote working will be incentivised, Minister for Finance and Employment Clyde Caruana said, but added that the government must be careful as inequalities can emerge.The Finance minister was answering a Parliamentary question posed by...

While welcoming the strong drive towards Covid-19 vaccination for school staff members which is currently underway, the Secretariat for Catholic Education and the Church Schools Association call for greater urgency and a more balanced vaccination rol...

Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary school will move to online schooling as from Wednesday until the end of this month, the school announced on Tuesday.In a statement given by the school administration, they announced that as of 10 March the school will ...