From Monday 26th April a number of Covid-19 restrictions will be eased.
At a press conference on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Robert Aleba, together with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health Chris Fearne and Superintendent of Public Health Professor Charmaine Gauci, said that non-essential shops,which include hair dressers, barbers, beauticians, would be allowed to reopen.
Visits to patients at Mater Dei Hospital and Mount Carmel would resume.
Measures to return to a more normal way of life would come into effect from May 10th.
Restaurants and snack bars will be able to open until 5pm with a maximum of four people at each table (After 5pm they will only be able to open for take-aways and deliveries), training for professional contact sports will be able to resume while non-contact sport would be able to completely resume, both without spectators.
Restrictions on arts education and extra-curricular activities, religious doctrine education and open markets would be removed while travel restrictions between Malta and Gozo will be lifted.
Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne said the steps were in line with what the government had prepared for but he warned that the measures being lifted will need to be reintroduced if the Covid-19 numbers go up again. The government, he said, will remain cautious, stressing that mass events will not start from June.
Professor Charmaine Gauci said that the positivity rate of the virus has reduced and while the number of Covid patients in the ITU has also reduced, people must continue to follow health authority guidelines. Wedding receptions can recommence on 1st June, but they must be seated and subjected to a number of strict COVID-19 restrictions.
