The 'Green' list

By Kevin-James Fenech

Kevin is the founder and owner of JOB Search - jobsearch.mt and FENCI Consulting fenci.eu

The UK government refused to promote Malta to the elusive ‘Green List’. Needless to say, this was a big disappointment especially for our tourism industry and the overall recovery of our battered economy.

I think it is fair to say that this decision was a big surprise to industry experts although the Brits are probably determined to reach herd immunity before they allow their citizens to travel abroad. The United Kingdom has given the first dose to circa 40.3m people and both jabs to approximately 28m, meaning half of all UK adults are fully vaccinated. The target is 70% and until they reach this milestone, we can expect to remain on the ‘amber’ list which effectively means tourists returning back to the UK would need to quarantine for 10 days and take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 and on or after day 8.

I don’t think we could have done anything to get on the ‘Green list’ but it will mean we lose June as summer month. Hopefully, a strong September will make up for June.

The game changer earlier this year was the vaccine but now the game changer is that our key markets (UK, Germany, Italy, France, etc) reach herd immunity. We have done very well to reach herd immunity ourselves but we now need our key markets to follow suit. We are after all in this together.

We also need Malta to ‘activate’ it’s full participation in the EU’s Digital COVID Certificate project. Currently, according to the EU Commission’s web site, Malta is still ‘…In test phase’ and not technically ready to connect to the EUDCC gateway meaning we are not in a position to issue and/or verify EU digital certificates which confirm that EU passengers either have an approved vaccination certificate, a negative test result or have recently recovered from COVID-19. Why public health is holding back on this, when other EU countries like Germany, Spain and Greece, to mention a few, are already using it, is beyond me but we really need to move up a gear and get up to speed. This is the surest way of resuscitating tourism, breathing life into freedom of movement and harnessing technology to our advantage. Our tourism industry depends on it and in so doing we also avoid crowds of people accumulating in our airport who are forced to use antiquated paperwork to gain entry into our island.

To my mind, Malta being on a ‘green list’ must mean that we are one of the first using the EU’s Digital COVID Certificate gateway; that we scrap the obligation for fully vaccinated tourists, also coming from ‘Green’ countries, to have to submit a negative PCR test (which can be as old as 72 hours); that we give airlines and the tourism industry in general confidence to keep Malta connected. We sometimes assume that tourist will always come to Malta but in this pandemic there has been a lot of disruption and as we approach the recovery we need to garner first mover advantage and the most obvious decision is for Malta to be one of the first using the EU’s Digital COVID Certificate gateway. In fact, I really can’t understand why we are hesitating or being so selfishly shortsighted and conservative and this to our economic detriment.

It is as if our mindset is still pre-herd immunity. I mean why, for example, are we still quoting the number of daily infections? Don’t public health officials realise that it is extremely rare in a post-herd immunity world, for someone who is fully vaccinated to end up in hospital or die if they catch the virus (including the much hyped Indian variant)? I am sure they know this since virologist Prof. Chris Barbara recently told the press that Pfizer is 88% effective against the Indian variant and AstraZenca 60% whilst Pfizer is 93% effective against the Kent variant and AstraZenca 66%, which means hospitalisations or death are highly unlikely.

Unless of course, real herd immunity is when 70% of the population has been fully inoculated? If so we are soon to reach this milestone too (later this month) and can change our mindset to a post-herd immunity one. This will mean that we stop forcing people to wear a face mask and the daily COVID briefings can stop amongst a host of other restrictions being lifted once and for all.

My point is that Malta is, or will be very soon, on the definitive ‘Green List’ and this means the country as a whole (including our conservative public health officials) must adopt a post-herd immunity mindset for the benefit of all. If we keep thinking and behaving in the same manner we did pre-herd immunity, we are going to suffocate our economy and forever lose our freedoms. Also coming to Malta for holiday will become cumbersome.

Let’s now believe in the science of vaccines and have the courage to move forward. Green means Green and herd immunity means herd immunity. Alleluia!