[WATCH] More COVID-19 recoveries, and one new case with over 35,000 tested

Malta yesterday registered just one new COVID-19 case from a total of over 900 tests carried out over the past 24 hours, Public Health Superintendent Prof. Charmaine Gauci said.

The case hails from the Hal Far tent village for migrants that has been quarantied.

At a briefing, Prof. Gauci said that 12 more people had fully recovered from the virus, with Malta now having 85 active cases.

Malta has now carried out 35,117 coronavirus tests.

On Friday, 944 tests were carried out, from which just one positive result was obtained. This brings the total number of positives cases to 468. With another 12 persons having recovered, the total number of active cases is now down to 85.

The positive case, a Sudanese man aged 27, was detected in Hal Far tent village as part of a screening programme. A total of 50 cases have been reported from Hal Far so far. The health authorities are working with the Agency for the Welfare of Asylum Seekers to test migrants in groups to avoid unnecessary detention.

Prof. Gauci stated that over 15,000 persons had used the online COVID-19 symptom checker and that 1,700 persons had checked for other people. This tool was allowing the gathering of anonymous statistics on the symptoms in the community, she said.

Ongoing vigilance required

Malta was now in a “transition phase” due to the stable number of cases and rate of transmission being below 1, but Prof. Gauci warned against complacency. “We cannot lose all the hard work we’ve done so far,” she said as she appealed to people to remain vigilant.

As from Monday, she said that retail outlets will be opened, for some non-essential items – clothes shops, florists and the like would be allowed to open, albeit with certain conditions.

Travel between Malta and Gozo was now open to all except vulnerable persons, Prof. Gauci said. “The virus is still out there. The principles of caution and social distancing remain. It is important that people wear face masks in shops.”

Prof. Gauci said that if anyone had missed vaccinations for their children, now was the time to come forward with operations resuming Monday.

The majority of COVID-19 cases in Malta have not required hospitalisation, and most cases were young people who had stayed at home.

Asked by MaltaToday whether recreational areas would be included in the gradual relaxation of restrictions, she said it depended on future risk assessments. These were made on fixed criteria that classified measures into categories. “We cannot afford to go too fast or risk ruining good work… measures are introduced for 6-week periods during which they are observed and assessed. This requires the cooperation of the public.

“We cannot have everybody go outside now that we have opened certain shops... A lot of people made great sacrifices [to get to this point]. We didn’t have to go for extreme measures and go for full lockdown, like abroad. We arrived here together, let us move forward together step by step.”

In what is undoubtedly bad news for churchgoers, the Superintendent said that Malta was not at the stage where churches or religious sites could be reopened to the public.

On the other hand, non-essential retail outlets were designated as low risk. Changing rooms in clothes shops could be a vector for transmitting the virus, she said, adding that these rooms should not be used.

Clothes should not be touched unnecessarily, said Prof. Gauci, reminding that there would be alcohol rub available at the door. Exchanges are subject to the consent of the shop owner, she said, explaining that returned items are to be held in quarantine for 72 hours.

Prof. Gauci emphasised the wearing of face masks when in public. “Now that we are relaxing measures and this increases risk, the masks mitigate the measures. Now is the time to use masks. Every obligation we introduced was because of a need.”

Legislation on mask use will be issued later today or tomorrow and will apply as from Monday.