Karin Grech Hospital patient becomes seventh victim of Coronavirus in Malta

A 97-year-old man has become Malta’s seventh victim of the Coronavirus, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

The elderly man was a patient at Karin Grech Hospital. He becomes the oldest victim of the disease in Malta. He had symptoms of the disease on 16 May and tested positive a day later. The man died in the hospital.

The ministry expressed its condolences to the man’s family and again urged the public to follow instructions issued by the health authorities to contain the disease and protect the most vulnerable.

During her briefing yesterday, Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said that one new Coronavirus case was registered between Tuesday and Wednesday, while six patients recovered.

The number of cases since the beginning of the outbreak now stands at 612, with seven deaths. There are 114 active cases, with 491 recoveries.

Gauci said that the person who was diagnosed with the Coronavirus yesterday was a 71-yearold patient at Mount Carmel Hospital. A contact tracing exercise is taking place among the staff and other patients at the hospital.

The six patients who recovered are 3 aged in their 20s, and one each in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

Gauci said there are six patients at Boffa Hospital, five at St Thomas Hospital, six at Mater Dei Hospital, five at Karin Grech Hospital and one at Mount Carmel Hospital.

The rest of the patients are recovering at home.

Gauci explained that all those recovering in hospital are in a stable medical condition, noting that some are there because they may have family members at home who would be vulnerable to complications were they to catch the virus, meaning that it is better to keep the person in a hospital environment to reduce the risk of transmission to these family members.

Asked about the celebrations which took place in Floriana on Monday as a result of the locality’s football team league win, Gauci said that celebrations had taken place in various places, and added that these are situations which they cannot afford at the moment.

She said that the incubation period of the virus is between two and 14 days, and that those who did attend the celebrations should call the helpline immediately if they have any symptoms. She noted that those who do not have symptoms but wish to be tested can be tested as from tomorrow.

Answering other questions, Gauci revealed that 25% of Malta’s 612 cases did not show any symptoms. Out of these asymptomatic cases, 50 of them hailed from the Ħal Far Open Centre – excluding those from the equation means that 15% of the cases which remained in the community were asymptomatic.

She said that the number was higher than in other countries because Malta’s testing rates and strategy puts the country among the top when it comes to testing those without symptoms.

Asked about measures which can potentially be relaxed in the near future, Gauci said that so far the measures which had been relaxed were ones which were deemed to be of a low or moderate risk. If the situation remains stable, she said, then certain higher risk measures can start to be relaxed with the necessary mitigation measures in place.

Some of those measures are indeed the opening of Skolasajf and childcare centres. With regard to the former, Gauci said that they know it will be difficult to maintain social distancing between children, so the necessary measures in place have to be there, such as reducing the number of children in one place at one go along with more education and emphasis on proper hand hygiene.

Asked about the 97-year old man who passed away, the third patient from Karin Grech Hospital to pass away after testing positive for the virus, Gauci assured that the operators of the hospital – Steward Healthcare – are doing everything they can to control the virus and stop it from spreading inside the facility.

She said that there have been cases so far where those who did pass away did so because of other medical conditions which they had, but which would have been aggravated by the fact that they also had COVID-19.

She noted that they are following the definition set out by the World Health Organisation in terms of how they report those who died while being positive for the virus.