Malta Chamber President reiterates call for quarantine to be lowered to 7 days

Marisa Xuereb, President of the Malta Chamber, has reiterated the organisation's call for the quarantine period for vaccinated people to be reduced further, from 10 days to seven.

Ms Xuereb was speaking on morning show TVAM together with the Director General of the Malta Employers Associaton, Joseph Farrugia.

"Given the high rate of vaccination in Malta, and the apparent nature of the new variant, it seems that seven days are enough," Mr Xuereb said.

"We have to balance the risk of the virus with the risk of economic hardship."

Asked what difficulties businesses are facing because of the quarantine crisis, Ms Xuereb said:

"Today I went into work and found that 20 per cent of my workforce is absent. It's very difficult to operate a factory with only 80 per cent of the staff available."

Another bone of contention that employers are currently having to face is the possibility of their workers refusing to get vaccinated.

"Depending on the nature of the job, and based on a risk assessment, employers should have the option of obliging their staff to get vaccinated," Ms Xuereb said, adding that she agreed with such extreme measures at workplaces where the risk of infection was high.

"It should be up to employers to decide, and they should be backed by the authorities," she said.