Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said today that nine new Coronavirus cases were reported, bringing the total to 73.
One patient – the man who developed complications with pneumonia and who was taken ot Mater Dei Hospital on Friday – is now in intensive care, Gauci said. He is aged 61, and his partner had also tested positive.
He had developed bilateral pneumonia, an infection in both lungs, Gauci said, and as from today needs intensive care treatment as he needs further monitoring.
Gauci said that from tests carried out on people who were at the BOV branch in Ibrag on Friday, none of them tested positive. The bank had closed the branch after an employee had fallen ill.
She also referred to a case of a worker at the Balzan Pharmacy who developed Coronavirus, telling people who had been at the pharmacy on 16 and 17 March to be on the lookout for any symptoms and to contact the health authorities should they do so.
Speaking on cases reported today, she said that the first is a Maltese 21-year-old woman with no travel history, but who had a relative who returned from abroad on 9 March. Gauci said the patient is a University student who had last attended a lecture on 10 March, meaning that there is a nine-day gap between the last time she was in contact with other students and the day she experienced symptoms on 19 March, meaning a very small chance of transmission of the disease at the time she was at University.
The second case is of a man, aged 44, who is from Somalia and works in Malta. He was in Brussels between 12 and 15 March, and developed symptoms two days later. Contact tracing is taking place to establish who was in close proximity to him on the aircraft. The man obeyed quarantine instructions on his return, and only came in contact with two other persons who live in the same apartment.
Another two cases are those of a 41-year-old man who developed symptoms on 15 March and of a 55-year-old man who experienced symptoms on 14 March. The 41-year-old is a foreigner married to a Maltese, who had no travel history and who is likely to have contracted the disease locally. The 55-year-old also has no travel history and he had attended work the day before he developed the symptoms, triggering a contact tracing exercise.
The fifth case is of a Maltese 55-year-old woman who lives in England and came to Malta on 19 March, developing symptoms on the same day. Contact tracing of passengers on board the same flight is also taking place, Gauci said. She has been in quarantine on her own since her return.
An Italian woman who lives in Australia and came to Malta on 19 March also tested positive to the virus, Gauci said. She came through London and went into quarantine.
Another case is of a 49-year-old Maltese woman who had no travel history but came in contact with someone who had been abroad. She developed symptoms on 19 March. She works in a school but the last time she attened was on 12 March, because schools were closed from the day after. There is no risk for other students and teachers, Gauci said.
An Indian man, aged 30 with no employment, developed symptoms on 18 March. He had no travel history but had come into contact with another person who has contracted the disease, Gauci said.
The ninth case reported today is of an Englishwoman, aged 68, who came to Malta on 16 March. She developed symptoms on 18 March and had been in quarantine since her arrival.