Below, an opinion article, posted in its entirety, submitted by University of Malta student,
Riccardo De Nittis on 20 March 2020
Being a scientist, I decided to carry out a simple statistical investigation regarding a comparative study between the number of COVID-19 affected individuals in Malta 🇲🇹 and Italy 🇮🇹. The results I got are impressively scaring.
Considering that the Italian population is of 60,359,546 individuals and that the current number of individuals affected by the COVID-19 virus is 41,034, the percentage of COVID-19 affected people in Italy is 0.06798%
Considering that the Maltese population is of 493,559 individuals and that the current number of individuals affected by the virus is 53, the percentage of COVID-19 affected people in Malta is 0.01074%
This means that, proportionally, the number of affected people in Italy is only of a magnitude of 6 times greater than that in Malta.
However, one should also consider that quarantine became obligatory for everyone in Italy on March 9th and, on March 8th, the number of people affected by the virus was 7375, which is 0.0122% of the population. Considering that the current percentage of people affected by the virus in Malta is 0.01074%, it can be noted that the current number of people affected by the virus in Malta is almost proportionally equal to the number of affected people in Italy when quarantine became obligatory!
Considering that quarantine is still not obligatory in Malta and that this rock is extremely densely populated (7 times more than in Italy), one can understand the gravity of the situation and forecast what will soon happen. Proportionally, once we reach 368 affected people in Malta, the percentage of the population affected by the virus will be the same as it is in Italy right now! We are very close!
Please share as much as possible to raise awareness! It is essential at this point in time!
Below you can find the links which I used to carry out this statistical investigation:
In reaction to this article, Dr Vincent Marmara, lecturer within the Faculty of Economics, Management & Accountancy, had this remark to add:
"Malta was at the forefront when decisions were taken. I believe that based on Italy's mistakes, Malta learnt a lot. Malta's reproduction rate is noticeably less than Italy, and hence Malta most probably will not go through Italy's same situation. Having said that, this doesn't mean that Malta will not suffer, it will suffer less than Italy, based on the current situation.
Hence, that's why more measures will reduce the number of infected people and hence less deaths as well. That's why social distancing is crucially important. More strict measures are definitely helping the country to protect more people from getting infected/dying from this disease."
Disclaimer: Opinions and thoughts expressed within this article do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Malta.
