Last Wednesday, Malta registered its highest number of cases in the span of 24 hours, with 106 cases recorded, 51 of which came from St Joseph Home in Fgura.

Two other homes, Casa Antonia and Casa San Paolo, have also seen cases emerge, with the former registering upwards of 20 cases, while two residents at the latter facility were found to be positive around two weeks ago, with no further cases found so far.

With the majority of COVID-related deaths occurring in elderly people, fears have emerged as to whether there will be a spike of deaths stemming from clusters at homes for the elderly.

While none of the recent deaths are known to have occurred to elderly persons who were residing at and/or contracted the virus from a local care home, Malta’s death-count related to the virus jumped from 14 on 11th September to 25 as of today.

Superintendent of Public Health, Charmaine Gauci, had warned of the virus reaching elderly people when the second wave of the pandemic hit Malta around mid-July in relation to mass events and the reopening of Malta’s airports.

In view of the major concerns being experienced by operators of homes for the eldercare homes, WhosWho.mt got in touch with Nazzareno Vassallo, Chairman of the Board of CareMalta, Malta’s largest organisation for care homes locally.

CareMalta currently operates nine homes with just one facility which has been found with the virus after two residents tested positive some two weeks ago. Since then, no further clusters at CareMalta have been reported.

Under its management, CareMalta operates: Casa Arkati, Villa Messina, Roseville, Casa San Paolo, Casa Marija, Cospicua Home, Mellieha Home, Zammitt Clapp and Zejtun Home.

Last week, in response to the spike in cases and clusters emerging at homes for the elderly, the Malta Chamber of Commerce called for a temporary period of stricter COVID measures, such as further limiting public gatherings, the mandatory use of facemasks outside the home at all times and a return to home working.

It also called for targeted and specialised support by the authorities to help management at homes for the elderly battle the spread of the disease.

Asked whether he agrees with the proposals being made, Mr Vassallo replied in the affirmative.

“As we have been seeing since Malta registered its first COVID-19 cases, the elderly and the most vulnerable people are the most at risk.

“Unfortunately, this disease is leaving an increasing number of victims, almost all of them older people.

“As the largest operator of care homes in Malta responsible for almost 1600 individuals, we are certainly concerned, keeping in mind that this is easily comparable to a time bomb.

“From day one we took all the necessary precautions to ensure that as much as possible we will keep the virus away from our homes,” Mr Vassallo stressed.

He added that between March and June, CareMalta homes were among the first to place themselves on lockdown as a preventive measure.

“This entailed much sacrifice by our managers and employees, and a hefty investment from the company’s side.

“Most of them stayed lock in for 10 whole weeks. This sacrifice paid off because we kept the virus out of the home. The Government supported our efforts by helping out financially, and we are grateful for this assistance. However, doing this in the long term is not sustainable on different fronts.”

Mr Vassallo said that the most important point raised by The Malta Chamber is that although care homes are able to care for their residents, their may come a point where the residents may need hospital care.

“Care homes are not equipped with the same equipment and specialised medical staff as hospitals are,” he said.

Turning to how Care Malta is managing the current second wave, Mr Vassallo said the group has “left no stone unturned to ensure that [its] facilities take the necessary measures to keep COVID out of the homes, or to isolate cases when they emerge”.

Back onto his chief concern, Mr Vassallo questions what happens “should a number of residents require specialised medical care which goes beyond what we or anyone else in this sector can offer”.

Mr Vassallo argued that “leaving the care homes to face this battle alone is a huge risk which should definitely be avoided if we are not to go through what other countries went through”.

Asked about any communication with the Government about further assistance or resources dedicates to homes for the elderly, Mr Vassallo confirmed that communication with the Health Ministry, Family and Active Ageing Ministry and the Social Care Standards Authority are ongoing.

The SCSA have recently issued fresh guidelines in the wake of clusters at carehomes, encouraging operators to create a ‘bubble’ within the homes, and only permitting residents to leave for hospital appointments.

“We are thankful for the support and guidance we got whenever we asked for them. The current situation is a challenge that we can only win if we manage to find the most sensible solutions which keep the interest of our residents at the forefront.

“At the end of the day we need to speak about how many lives we managed to save together rather than being remorseful on how many people we lost simply because we would have failed to identify and implement the best solutions in these challenging times.

“I am confident that ultimately good sense will prevail.”