A three-year-old Maltese boy and a Mater Dei Hospital patient are among eight new Coronavirus cases reported today.
The total number is now 38, health chief Charmaine Gauci said. All are in a stable condition.
The boy becomes the youngest Coronavirus patient to be registered in Malta so far since the first case was reported 10 days ago. He had been in contact with a person who was one of the cases reported in the past days, and was being monitored. He developed symptoms on 15 March and later tested positive, Gauci said, adding that since schools and childcare centres are closed he was not attending, and had not developed any symptoms when at school.
A father and son are two other cases, Gauci said. The man, aged 58, had been abroad and his wife had already developed the disease. The couple’s son, aged 15, also tested positive. The family is Italian, and they reside in Malta. All three remained in quarantine since the father returned from abroad, Gauci said. He had been in Rome between 1 and 5 March.
The fourth case reported today is one that is baffling the health authorities the most. It is a 59-year-old woman who was recovering at Mater Dei Hospital since 5 March because of a fracture, but developed respiratory symptoms on 13 March. Tests were carried out and she resulted positive last night.
The woman, who had not travelled, was being kept in a room with another patient. Gauci said that she and the other patient were immediately transferred to the Infectious Disease Unit. The other patient tested negative. The room has been disinfected and has not been used since. The staff who had been in contact with the sick patient were placed in quarantine.
The health authorities are investigating to find out how was it possible for this woman could have contracted the disease, Gauci said. She had been minimally in contact with a care worker who later tested positive; it was less than the 15-minute contact period which is normally associated with the transmission of the virus. Gauci said that patients being kept in the same ward were also being checked.
The other cases reported today include that of a Maltese woman aged 26 and a man aged 62, both of whom were in England and returned to Malta on the same flight on 13 March. The woman, who was in quarantine since her return, developed symptoms on 14 March and last night tested positive. The man developed sysmptoms on 15 March, and had been in quarantine. He becomes the older Coronavirus patient. Contact tracing is taking place to establish who were the passengers who were sitting close to these two persons on the flight.
Another Maltese man, aged 28, also developed Coronavirus and although he was not abroad, he had been in contact with colleagues at work who had travelled to infected areas.
Another Maltese man, aged 52, tested positive without having been abroad and without having been in contact with people who travelled. Even here, the health authorities are checking what led to the contagion. This man works with a private company and the health authorities are checking people who could have been in contact with this person. Further investigation showed that the man had attended a gym and it is possible that he contracted the disease from there.