Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said today that five new cases of Coronavirus were registered, bringing the total to 53.
Addressing the media, she said that after 304 swab tests were done in the past day, five new cases of the virus had been found. Four of them are Maltese citizens, while the fifth is a Spaniard who resides in Malta.
The fact that the number of cases was halved over two days – there were 10 on Wednesday, and five today – does not mean that the situation is getting better, Gauci said.
The worst is still to come, she added, again insisting that people should stay inside as much as possible and avoid social contact.
The first case is of a Maltese woman, aged 56, who already had five relatives who had been diagnosed with the disease. The first of this cluster of six was a person who had travelled to Brussels.
The second case is of a Maltese man, aged 29, who had travelled to England between 8 and 15 March. He started developing symptoms on his return, and has been in quarantine since.
The third case is of a Spanish man, aged 33, who was in Spain between 29 March and 9 March. He lives and works in Malta, and went to work for a few hours on 10 March, but developed symptoms on 12 March; a risk-assessment carried out indicates this two-day window means that the chances of transmission to his colleagues was minimal.
A Maltese 35-year-old man who returned from Brussels on 11 March is the fourth case. He displayed symptoms of a headache and a cough soon after his return, and was been in quarantine since he returned.
The fifth case for today is that of a Maltese man aged 64, who developed symptoms on 17 March. He had been in contact with a relative who had been in England and who had tested positive for the infection as well. This man had also followed the quarantine law, meaning that exposure to others is minimal.
Gauci renewed her appeal for everyone to reduce their contact with other people. She reminded that the virus is predominantly transmitted through droplet transmission, meaning that it is easy for those who have symptoms to infect others in their presence.
She appealed for people not to go outside even though today is a public holiday, and repeated previous hygiene advice to wash one’s hands and clean surfaces which other people may have come in contact with.
Gauci said that while the number of recovered patients has remained at two, the remaining active cases, including the elderly patients, are all in good health.
Answering questions from journalists, Gauci noted that the fact that the number of new cases reported today was half the number of new cases reported yesterday was not an indication for people to start thinking that the situation has suddenly improved.
“These are small numbers and it is important to keep following the measures in place – the worst is yet to come. The risk is still there so we continue to appeal to everyone to be cautious and follow all recommendations”, she said.
She said that the number of cases will continue to increase, and said that people must be careful not to let the numbers deceive them.
She said that no more health care workers had tested positive, but noted that some who had been in contact with other cases are now in quarantine so as not to be a risk to other patients if they do end up getting the symptoms.
Asked about the recovery procedure for patients who have contracted the disease, Gauci said that so far, all Malta’s cases have very mild symptoms, meaning that it is simply a question of monitoring them.
She said that if it results that a patient would require treatment – which may arise if the person is more susceptible to complications due to old age, a weak immune system, or other conditions – then the authorities have the medicine and stock needed to participate in clinical trials like there are ongoing abroad.