Cars decorated with solemn black ribbons will make their way from Pembroke to Mater Dei Hospital on Sunday afternoon, as part of a cortege organised to highlight the plight of the elderly and their relatives due to COVID-19.
The solemn procession is scheduled to begin at 4.30pm at the Pembroke park-and-ride and will end at the national hospital at around 5.15pm, where candles will be placed at the Statue of Mater Dei. Participants will remain in their cars throughout the cortege, to respect public health rules.
Malta’s COVID-19 death toll has topped the 60-person mark, with the vast majority of those deaths being of elderly, vulnerable people, and as doctors and nurses warn of increasing strains on local healthcare systems.
Cortege organiser Martina Caruana noted that apart from the misery of virus victims, who were deprived the support of their loved ones in their dying hours, relatives of those victims have been “shattered by this traumatic experience.”
“Apart from not taking our health workers, who are making extraordinary personal sacrifices to serve us, for granted we should be showing greater respect towards the elderly. They are citizens who contributed to society,...