COVID-19 death count increases to 23 as 45 more cases found

A 98-year-old man and an 83year-old man became the 22nd and 23rd people to die with COVID-19 on Monday as 45 more cases of COVID-19 were found.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said that the 98-year-old man tested positive for COVID-19 on 6 September, when he was taken to hospital from a home for the elderly.

The man continued to receive treatment at Mater Dei Hospital until his death early on Monday.

The man is the oldest out of Malta’s COVID-19 related deaths

In a separate statement later on Monday, the Health Ministry said that the 83-year-old man who died tested positive for COVID-19 on 16 September when he was admitted to Mater Dei Hospital. The man continued to receive treatment at Mater Dei, where he passed away on Monday.

In each statement, the Ministry said that the victims had other medical conditions.

Eight people have now died with COVID-19 in the space of a week.

45 new local cases of COVID-19 meanwhile were found overnight, while five migrants residing in closed centres also tested positive for the virus between Sunday and Monday, health authorities said.

32 people were also registered as having recovered from the virus.

This means that the number of active cases of the virus currently stands at 676, keeping in mind that the migrants who tested positive are not included in the figure after the government received direction from the European Centre for Disease Control in this regard.

1,783 swab tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of swab tests up to 233,231.

Out of the 32 cases reported on Sunday, 8 were family members of previously known cases, 4 were work colleagues of previously known cases, 2 were direct contacts of other positive cases, another 2 were from social gatherings with other positive cases, while 1 more was from the St. Joseph Home cluster.

Malta has now had 2,776 cases of COVID-19. Out of those, 2,079 have recovered and 23 have died.