Joint Medical Association statement to ban mass events

After months of restrictions to contain the spread of the COVID pandemic, we were pleased to note the progressive return to a new normality, that struck the balance between the economic needs of the country and the mitigation measures that will continue to contain the virus. This balance is essential to ensure that this important recovery is not jeopardised and the low number of active cases registered in the last few weeks is a testimony to the success of this approach. Importantly, many health services that had to be postponed or suspended during the COVID crisis have been restored to the benefit of our patients and the population at large.

It is therefore with grave concern that we have noted the spike in COVID cases, resulting from the organisation of mass events. In the weeks to come there are several such events planned, that will bring together tens of thousands of revellers, in a context where mitigation measures are difficult to implement. As we have seen, these events have the potential to result in large surges of cases which are more difficult to contain and risk compromising all the gains that have been made through our collective sacrifice at the early stages of the pandemic. Unfortunately, the government has yet to sensibly respond to the spike in cases, by heeding the growing calls for the prohibition of such events.

As medical associations we endorse the appeal of the MAM, by strongly and publicly calling on the government to revoke all permits for mass events and prioritise the health and wellbeing of the whole nation over the economic interests of a minority. In addition, we also call on the administration to be more attentive to public health recommendations when formulating policy in the future.