Three-year-old boy, hospital patient among 8 new cases; total now 38

A three-year-old Maltese boy and a Mater Dei Hospital patient are among eight new coronavirus cases reported yesterday afternoon.

The total number is now 38, health chief Charmaine Gauci said. All are in a stable condition. Malta has been hit by the coronavirus, which is also affecting many countries around the world.

The boy became the youngest coronavirus patient to be registered in Malta since the first case was reported 10 days ago. He had been in contact with a person who was one of the cases reported previously, and was being monitored. He developed symptoms on 15 March and later tested positive, Gauci said, adding that since schools and childcare centres are closed he was not attending, and had not developed any symptoms when at school.

A father and son are two other cases, Gauci said. The man, aged 58, had been abroad and his wife had already contracted the virus. The couple’s son, aged 15, also tested positive. The family is Italian, and they reside in Malta. All three remained in quarantine since the father returned from abroad, Gauci said. He had been in Rome between 1 and 5 March.

The fourth case reported yesterday was one that is baffling the health authorities the most. It is a 59-year-old woman who had been recovering at Mater Dei Hospital since 5 March because of a fracture, but developed respiratory symptoms on 13 March. Tests were carried out and returned positive last night.

The woman, who had not travelled, was being kept in a room with another patient. Gauci said that she and the other patient were immediately transferred to the Infectious Disease Unit. The other patient tested negative.

The room has been disinfected and has not been used since. The staff who had been in contact with the sick patient were placed in quarantine.

The health authorities are investigating to find out how this woman contracted the virus,

Gauci said. She had been minimally in contact with a care worker who later tested positive; it was less than the 15-minute contact period which is normally associated with the transmission of the virus. Gauci said that patients being kept in the same ward were also being checked.

The other cases reported yesterday included that of a Maltese woman aged 26 and a man aged 62, both of whom were in England and returned to Malta on the same flight on 13 March. The woman, who was in quarantine since her return, developed symptoms on 14 March and Monday night tested positive. The man developed symptoms on 15 March, and had been in quarantine. He became the oldest coronavirus patient. Contact tracing is taking place to establish the identity of the passengers who were sitting close to these two persons on the flight.

Another Maltese man, aged 28, also contracted the coronavirus and although he was not abroad, he had been in contact with colleagues at work who had travelled to infected areas.

Another Maltese man, aged 52, tested positive without having been abroad and without having been in contact with people who travelled. Even here, the health authorities are checking what led to the him contracting the virus. This man works with a private company and the health authorities are checking people who could have been in contact with this person. Further investigation showed that the man had attended a gym and it is possible that he contracted the virus from there.

Gauci told journalists that so far 38 people have tested positive out of the 1,640 tested for the virus. Of those, 939 tests were carried out on people who had symptoms, who were abroad or were suspected of having the virus. 701 tests have been carried out on patients at Mater Dei Hospital, all of which were negative apart for the 59-year-old British woman.

As new measures came into place for restaurants, bars and

każini to close, Gauci encouraged people to remain calm and said that supermarkets will not be closing. “There is no need to hoard food, as this will only cause unnecessary problems with food supply,” said Gauci. She said that the authorities are in contact with supermarket owners about how to avoid crowding.

She once again called on the public to take on social distancing measures to reduce the risk of local transmission. “We recommend that all vulnerable people, elderly and pregnant women avoid unnecessary social contact.” She said that the health authorities are expecting to see an increase in cases as the authorities are increasing testing.

When asked about the conditions of other patients, Gauci said that all are well, yet they are still testing positive for the virus. “Since this is a new virus, there are many factors to take into consideration as to why some patients recover more quickly than others. It depends on how long you have had the virus and your immune system. We have to wait and let our patients recover, but so far they are all in good health.”