COVID-19: Active cases at 225 as nine new cases registered

Malta registered a single-digit increase for a second day in a row, with nine cases of COVID-19 discovered on Saturday.

Statistics from the Health Ministry show that Malta has 225 active cases of the virus, with nine new cases and 31 new recoveries.

Since the start of the outbreak, Malta has registered 30,447 total cases of COVID-19, with 29,805 recoveries.

No new deaths have been recorded over the past 24 hours, with the death toll standing at 417.

1,766 swab tests were carried out on Saturday, with 883,785 total tests having been carried out since the start of the pandemic.

Almost 60% of the population has received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

Until Saturday, 375,986 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, of which 257,781 were first doses.

As a result, 119,427 people are fully vaccinated against the virus, at 27% of the total population.

On Sunday, Health minister Chris Fearne took to Twitter to announce that 60% of the Maltese adult population will have received their first COVID jab by end of day.

“Within the next 24 hours, 60% of Malta’s adult population will have taken at least the first dose of the COVID vaccine,” he said.

According to population statistics from the NSO, there are 432,616 adults that are eligible to receive the vaccine.

From these, 70% need to be given both doses of the jab in order to reach herd immunity, except in the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine where only one dose is needed for full immunity.

In absolute numbers, 302,831 adults must be fully vaccinated to reach herd immunity.