Our lawyers are actively following all the measures which are being put in place from time to time by the Maltese authorities in light of the COVID-19 outbreak in Malta. These measures are taking effect by means of various Legal Notices, each of which is explained hereunder.
For the purposes of guarding against and, or controlling the COVID-19 infectious disease, the Superintendent of Public Health ordered that any person who is diagnosed as suffering from COVID-19 infectious disease shall, immediately upon receiving an oral or written order, as the case may be, from the Superintendent, submit himself or herself to self-isolation and shall remain in self-isolation until the Superintendent revokes the oral or written order.
This Legal Notice also extends to any person or persons living in the same residence as those persons diagnosed as suffering from COVID-10 infectious disease.
This order shall be deemed to have come into force on the 23rd of March 2020.
This Legal Notice is intended to enforce L.N. 95 ordering the self-isolation of diagnosed persons, for the purposes of guarding against and, or controlling the COVID-19 infectious disease.
By virtue of this Legal Notice, any person diagnosed as suffering from COVID-10 infectious disease who fails to abide by the order for self-isolation shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to the payment of a penalty of ten thousand Euro (€10,000) for each and every occasion that such orders are breached.
By virtue of this Legal Notice, the Superintendent of Public Health ordered the closure of all shops whereby their principal business relates to selling of clothing, sportswear, jewellery, hand bags and leather goods, costume jewellery and accessories, footwear, non-prescription eye-wear, perfumeries, beauty products, haberdasheries, soft furnishings, souvenir shops, discount stores, luggage shops, toy shops, hobby shops, furniture shops, florists and vaping shops, whether operating in shopping malls and/or elsewhere.
These shops may still sell and provide delivery services of their products in the community.
Further to the above, the Superintendent has also ordered, with effect from the said date and time, the closure of outlets providing non-essential services, namely hairdressers, barbers, beauticians, spas, nail artists, nail technicians and tattooists.
This order shall be deemed to have come into force on the 23rd of March 2020, 08:00 CET
The Superintendent may amend this order of closure in order to remove or include other outlets, when and if necessary.
By virtue of this Legal Notice, the Superintendent of Public Health ordered the suspension of all organised events, including all cultural, recreational, entertainment, sporting and religious events and exhibitions in public or private places.
This suspension applies also to all events and exhibitions held inside places subject to L.N. 76 and L.N. 82, namely:
This order shall be deemed to have come into force on the 23rd of March 2020, 08:00 CET
These two Legal Notices are intended to enforce L.N. 95 ordering the closure of non-essential retail outlets and outlets providing non-essential services and L.N. 101 of 2020 ordering the suspension of organised events, for the purposes of guarding against and, or controlling the COVID-19 infectious disease.
By virtue of this Legal Notice, any person who fails to abide by the order for closure of non-essential retail outlets and outlets providing non-essential services (L.N. 95 of 2020) and the order for the suspension of organised events (L.N. 101 of 2020) shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to the payment of a penalty of three thousand Euro (€3,000) for each and every occasion that such orders are breached.
This Legal Notice is intended to amend the wording of L.N. 65 of 2020 entitled “Closure of the Courts of Justice Order, 2020”.
In this regard, the term ‘designated court’ is now defined as “any of the courts of justice, that is the superior courts and the inferior courts including appellate courts irrespective of their competence or jurisdiction, and includes also any tribunal established by law which operates from the building of the Courts of Justice, and any boards, commissions, committees or other entities which operate from the building of the Courts of Justice before which any proceedings are heard or procedures undertaken which are subject to legal, judicial or administrative time limits for filing any claims, defences or other acts:
Provided that the tribunals, boards, commissions, committees or other entities which operate from the building of the Courts of Justice shall include the:
As a result, L.N. 65 of 2020 ordering the closure of the Courts of Justice now became applicable to designated courts as from the 16th of March 2020. This also means that L.N. 61 and L.N. 84 of 2020 entitled “Epidemics and Infectious Disease (Suspension of Legal and Judicial times) Order, 2020” are only applicable to those designated courts which operate from the building of the Courts of Justice.
Consequently, this Legal Notice introduces a suspension of the running of any legal, judicial administrative time-limit for the filing of any acts before the court following the conclusion of any proceedings before any tribunal, board, commission, committee or other entity which does not operate from the building of the Courts of Justice, for a period of twenty (20) days from the lifting of the repeal of this order by the Superintendent.
As for the suspension of the time limits as in force prior to the coming into force of this Legal Notice in that it concerns tribunals, boards, commissions, committees and other entities which are not operating in the building of the Courts of Justice shall remain in force for five (5) days from the coming into force of this amending order.
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