Malta with one of lowest COVID-19 positivity rates

Malta is one of a handful of European countries with a very low incidence of positive cases from those tested for COVID-19, EU data shows.

With a testing positivity rate below 4%, Malta joins Finland, Norway, Ireland, Denmark and a few regions in recording the lowest incidence of coronavirus cases.

The weekly update by the European Centre for Disease and Prevention Control shows that Malta is also among seven countries within the second highest testing rate category. Only Cyprus and Denmark have higher testing rates.

Since the start of the pandemic, Malta has been testing profusely for coronavirus with the latest data from yesterday showing that since March, hospital labs carried out 479,097 swab tests.

In the 24 hours up to Friday noon, 3,558 swab tests were carried out of which 94 cases were positive, amounting to 2.6% of all swab tests.

Until Friday, Malta registered 11,569 coronavirus cases since March, including 183 deaths.

#Malta with one of the lowest #COVID19 positivity rates in Europe: keep on testing. #KeepSafeForChristmas pic.twitter.com/VZhb7w5AAn

— Chris Fearne (@chrisfearne) December 19, 2020

Health Minister Chris Fearne welcomed the latest ECDC data, insisting the key to keeping the pandemic under control was adhering to safety measures and profuse testing to find and isolate the positive cases.