The government has advised people who live in Malta to lock themselves indoors when several music festivals take place over the next few months.
Following the recent spike in Covid-19 cases, concerns have been raised about the country playing host to large, multi-day events such as international electronic music festivals.
“We realise that residents are concerned about an influx of tourists potentially bringing Covid-19 with them, but they also have to understand that young British people need to party, and right now the poor things have nowhere else to go,” Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli told Bis-Serjetà.
“Think of them as asylum seekers, but instead of escaping war and famine, they’re desperately looking for banging tunes. We are obliged by international party law to accept them,” she added.
“If locals want to reduce the risk of virus transmission, they should lock themselves in their homes, keep their windows shut and not come out until the festivals are over and the lovely British people have finished having fun.”
Asked if incoming party-goers could be tested on arrival at the airport, Farrugia Portelli said:
“No, that would scare them away. They’re very skittish. We need to just let them come here, have a dance, take some drugs, spend a minimal amount of money, damage some property, leave mountains of trash, and then go home.”
The advice is similar to that given after several building collapses last year, when the government advised people to hide in World War 2 shelters.
