I’m a paramedic and my name is Antonio from Valletta, the capital of Malta. Malta is a small country located on the Mediterranean Sea, South of Italy. When COVID-19 started its journey all over the world, it had forgotten our little country, until March 2020.

In March 2020, an Italian family traveled to Malta. During that time I was working at the flight’s health team and I was responsible for that family’s quarantine, so I took them to a special hotel and carried their stuff. Their COVID-19 test was negative but after that we realized that their daughter was infected with the coronavirus and after a few days her parents’ COVID-19 tests were positive as well.

As a person who had touched their suitcases, I got really terrified! All our systems and the government were scared because these were the first COVID-19 cases that appeared in Malta. So with an official order, my team and I were quarantined because we were in contact with that family. After a few days I got bad headaches, I was always tired and I felt like I do when I get a cold.

I was pretty sure that I had been infected with the coronavirus, so I called the boss and explained my situation to him. I did not really have much information about COVID-19 infection symptoms so until the doctor came and visited me, I surfed the net for that information and when the healthcare team arrived, they were pretty sure that I was infected as well.

After a few days I felt so weak that I could not even move easily. The healthcare team had told me to drink a lot of water and juices so it would help the body to get rid of the virus. They gave me healthy food and water every day. While doing this, they kept their distance. In the first week of my quarantine, I felt worse day by day. I was depressed and I couldn’t stand the situation anymore. However, by the second week, my health got revived slowly and slowly and I could feel that my body was defeating the coronavirus.

In two weeks, I got totally fine but for more caution I stayed one more week in quarantine and after that I was allowed to live my usual life by wearing a mask and following the hygiene tips. In these three weeks, the first COVID-19 wave had started in Malta and we needed help to recover and get well. Until now (July 3, 2021) there are 30,640 people who have been infected of which 30,164 of them have recovered.

Editor’s Note: Malta’s First Coronavirus Case