13 new cases, total reaches 169; ‘stay indoors’
Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said yesterday that 13 new coronavirus cases were registered, bringing the total to 169.
Gauci again reiterated the importance of people not meeting each other and said that this is why a fine has been imposed in cases where people gather in groups of more than three, unless they are from the same household. She said she understood that it is a sacrifice to remain indoors on a beautiful day, but the risk of transmission increases when people congregate.
Eight of the thirteen new cases were a result of local transmission, while the rest were related to travelling, she added.
Gauci said that of the 169 cases, two remain in intensive care, one of whom, a 72-year-old man, is still intubated and in critical condition. Two patients who were at the ITU on Monday were transferred to the Infectious Diseases Unit (IDU).
There are a total of seven patients at the IDU at Mater Dei Hospital, and another 16 at St Thomas Hospital. The remaining patients are at home.
Five of the new locally transmitted cases are linked to one person, “which goes to prove that the health authorities’ constant instructions for people to abide by social distancing instructions is very important.”
The five cases were connected to one person who went to work in spite of experiencing symptoms, which led to three colleagues contracting the virus and then another two relatives of these people also testing positive.
Gauci said that the five people involved are four women aged 30, 26, 43 and 27, and a man aged 41.
“Four of the five cases linked to travelling regard people who arrived from England”
Another two locally transmitted cases are the parents of a coronavirus patient. The father is aged 75 and the mother is 72.
The eighth locally transmitted case is that of an eight-year-old girl who contracted the disease from a woman who had already tested positive.
Four of the five cases linked to travelling regard people who arrived from England. They are men aged 19, 25, 24 and 21, and since one of them developed symptoms a day after returning to Malta, a contact tracing exercise is taking place to establish who were the passengers sitting in close proximity to him.
The fifth case was of a 48-yearold woman who returned from Morocco on 19 March and developed symptoms a day later.
Hunting season
Despite ongoing restrictions on people’s outdoor movements, hunters have urged the government to open the spring hunting season for quail. When asked whether the hunting season would be allowed, Gauci said the situation is under consideration. “We are currently in discussions and assessing the situation to see what the risk would be in this case,” explained Gauci.
When asked about the reliability of swab tests, Gauci explained that even those people who tested negative must still take the necessary precautions and still continue isolation and social distancing. “Even if they test negative, they could still have the virus at a very early stage.”