[WATCH] Coronavirus: 17 new cases brings total to 107, all are stable

Malta has registered 17 new cases of coronavirus overnight, bringing the total number of infections so far to 107.

Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said on Monday that all cases, including an eldery man who is recovering at hospital's Intensive Therapy Unit, are stable and doing well.

Only two of the 107 cases have healed completely - tested negative twice in 24 hours.

From the 17 new cases, 10 were travel-related. The rest were local transmission.

Gauci said she was expecting the number of local transmissions to increase as time passes and urged people to obey social distancing rules so as to minimise the risk of spread.

She said people will have to adapt to the new way life because "this is a situation that will last". Malta has introduced several restrictive measures to minimise social contact and stop the virus from spreading.

On Sunday Malta registered 17 cases, the highest number in a single day until then. That number has now been matched 24 hours later.

On Monday morning, all non-essential retail outlets have had to close and non-essential services have been stopped. All public meetings and gatherings are also prohibited.

Gauci urged local counsils and other entities where meetings are necessary to hold them virtually. She said recommendations have also been made to factories on control measures to prevent contagion on the workplace.

Asked about complaints from Covid-19 patients who have been transferred to a private hospital for treatment, Gauci said the section in that hospital handling coronavirus patients was an automatic extension of Mater Dei Hospital's Infectious Diseases Unit and they were being treated by doctors from the national health service.

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