A family which travelled to Italy with the family which was diagnosed with the Coronavirus on Saturday tested negative for the virus when tests were carried out, Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci told The Malta Independent.
It was announced on Saturday that three people – a 12 year old girl and her parents – had tested positive for the virus, which in the past three month has spread from Wuhan in China to most of the western world.
The family was diagnosed with the virus after returning from a trip to Italy, which has itself been hit by the virus.
Information received by this newsroom revealed that the now-diagnosed family had been on holiday with another family before returning to Malta.
However, contacted by this newsroom, Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci – who has been at the frontline of dealing with the virus – explained that the virus is only spread when someone is sick and has the initial symptoms.
In this case, she said, the girl who was first diagnosed displayed the symptoms for the first time two whole days after coming back to Malta from Rome, which means that they did not have contact with the other family while she was symptomatic.
In spite of this, the Public Health Superintendence had contacted the second family as they had still travelled to what is a high-risk area due to the nature of the virus’ spread in Italy.
She said that they checked the family for symptoms, and found that only one member had symptoms. These symptoms ultimately proved to be unrelated to the virus though, as tests for it turned out to be negative.
She said that a distinction had to be made between people who went to a high-risk place, and those who had contact with a confirmed case because there are different levels of exposure – the latter being higher.
In the case of the latter, she explained, mandatory quarantine is imposed on the person – as happened with the three people who had been onboard the cruise ship MS Westerdam and one other person who had contact with a case abroad.
In the case of the former – where a person travels to a high-risk area – the risk of infection is less than if contact is directly made with a patient, but the superintendence still advises those persons to self-quarantine themselves.
In the case of the family which has now been diagnosed with the virus, Gauci described how they had gone about things as “exemplary”, noting that they had followed all protocols “perfectly”.
“As soon as they came back, they self-quarantined, and they didn’t send the girl to school. If everyone did like them we wouldn’t have any problems”, she said.
This newsroom also asked Gauci whether there were any special guidelines in place for those who work in outlets where they have to be close to people – such as hairdressers, barbers, and shop cashiers.
Gauci said that this has in fact been a frequent question and is being added to the department’s awareness campaign. She said that, firstly, it must come from the public not to go out if they are sick.
Secondly, she said, if these workers see someone who is sick, they have every right to turn them away and not serve them. Thirdly, these workers should themselves make sure they practice frequent hand hygiene, avoiding touching the face or mouth, while also regularly cleaning surfaces which they come into contact with.
Gauci also told this newsroom that the superintendence had been in contact with a number of language schools to help them with their risk assessment, and had similar conversations with sports associations as well.