Nineteen new Coronavirus cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, the highest single toll for a day.
Addressing the media today, Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said this brings the total number of cases so far to 129.
One of the new cases is that of an 81-year-old man, who becomes the oldest person to be diagnosed with Malta.
There are no new recoveries reported two, leaving the number of persons who recovered at two. The 61-year-old man who developed pneumonia is still in an unstable condition at the Intensive Therapy Unit, but he is not in critical condition, Gauci said.
Gauci said that eight of the cases were of people who had travelled abroad, another four who had had contact with people who had already been diagnosed, and seven cases which were locally transmitted but which the health authorities could not trace back to travelling or other cases already diagnosed.
Addressing the media, Gauci said that four of the cases linked to travelling were of people who had been to England – two Maltese women aged 47 and 23, and an Englishman aged 54 and his 22-year-old son.
The other cases linked with travelling are of a Spanish woman aged 40, who had been to Spain, two men aged 52 and 19 who had been to Austria, and a 56-year-old man who was in Poland.
Four other cases were of people who had come in contact with others who had already contracted the disease. They include a 21-year-old man who now forms part of the cluster of cases linked with Agenzija Sapport. The others are of a Maltese 58-year-old man who is a relative to one of the health workers already diagnosed, a 36-year-old man who had a contact with a person who was diagnosed after going to a gym, and a 52-year-old woman who had a contact with a relative who contracted the disease.
The rest of the cases – seven of 19 – cannot be linked to travelling or other cases already registered. They are three Maltese men aged 27, 47 and 81, an Italian man aged 38, two health workers aged 24 and 23 (the latter a Chinese man who works in Malta) and a 60-year-old woman.