Ten new cases of Coronavirus were registered today, for a total of 48, Health Chief Charmaine Gauci said.

Addressing the media, she said that Malta has the first cases of Coronavirus that hit elderly persons, two men aged 70 and 73. The latter was already a patient at the hospital.

The 70-year-old of Maltese nationality, Gauci said, experienced symptoms on 9 March but it was only in the last hours that he tested positive to Coronavirus. This provides a different challenge to the authorities given the patient's age, by Gauci said that the man was in a stable condition. The man, who had not travelled, had little contact and the authorities are still to established what led to the contagion.

Another two cases are two young women, who are relatives, aged 26 and 27. They were in Germany and Poland and returned via Berlin on 11 March. The two had already started to experience symptoms two days before their return to Malta, and they went into quarantine. As happens in these cases, contact tracing is being carried out to find out who were the passengers in proximity to them on the plane.

An Italian couple, a man and woman both aged 34 and resident in Malta, were also diagnosed with Coronavirus. They had not been abroad but had been in contact with another person who was diagnosed with Coronavirus in the past days after having been exposed to it at his place of work from a person who had travelled. The woman experienced symptoms on 12 March, and the man a day later.

The sixth case was of a Maltese 48-year-old woman who was in London between 1 and 7 March. She experienced symptoms on 17 March, and was in quarantine. Her family is now also in quarantine.

Two hospital patients have also contracted the disease. They are two men aged 57 and 73. They were diagnosed after the health authorities carried out tests on patients after a woman who was in hospital because of a fracture developed the disease. The two men were in a different ward than that of the original patient. These two patients were transferred to the infectious disease unit; other patients in the ward tested negative. The ward has been closed and hospital staff who had come into contact with these patients are in quarantine.

Another case is that of a Maltese man, aged 37, with no travel history but who had contact at work with a foreigner who came from the UK. He developed symptoms on 9 March. He works in a private company and a contact tracing exercise is being carried out.

A woman aged 26, a relative of another person who contracted the disease, also tested positive in the last 24 hours. She is from the same family of the woman who had travelled to Belgium, which had led to the contagion of two other members of the family, including the 3-year-old boy. So, in this case, from this cluster four people developed the disease, Gauci said.

Gauci noted that from new cases, there is a mix in terms of the sources of transmission.  She said that while the majority remain travel associated, there are now other cases of local transmission – some coming directly from those who were abroad, and others where authorities could not pinpoint the exact source. 

Gauci stressed that this was something that they were expecting as the number of cases, and indeed the number of tests carried out increased.

She said that a total of 1,799 swab tests have been carried out thus far – one of the highest test rates on the planet.

Gauci said that the superintendence would continue to emphasise on social distancing measures, with mass gatherings and certain outlets where people tend to congregate being closed. 

She said that with the virus now spreading to all countries in Europe, the time has come to stop flights from all countries, a ban which will come into being on Friday at 23:59 – the only exception will be an Air Malta flight scheduled to arrive from Heathrow at 00:30 on Saturday.

She said that aircraft will still be seen arriving in Malta, but noted that these will be for the sole person of repatriating tourists to their home countries.

Asked by The Malta Independent about reports of drugs used for other diseases such as HIV being used in countries such as India to successfully treat Coronavirus patients, Gauci replied that this was something that they were looking into, especially to be able to treat older patients.

She said that contact had been made with European authorities for Malta to participate in clinical trials using such medicines, noting that discussions were underway in order to increase the stock of these medicines in Malta so that they can be used for such trials.

Asked about a recently published legal notice, which stipulated that the superintendence reserves the right to change the mandatory quarantine period for those who work in “essential jobs”, Gauci said that as things stand the Maltese government has imposed what is the maximum period of incubation for the virus as the mandatory quarantine period – this being 14 days.

However, she noted that research is being conducted based on what is happening with regards to the virus abroad so as to identify which period is most prevalent in terms of the emergence of symptoms.

She said that a risk assessment-based decision will then be taken to see whether people who are essential for certain services can be returned to the workforce a day earlier.

Asked whether all patients are being kept at Mater Dei Hospital, Gauci said that there are a number of models of treatment in terms of where the patients can be kept.  She said that they may be kept at Mater Dei, at other facilities such as Boffa Hospital, or even at home.

She said that a clinical assessment is done on each positive case where the risk of complications or otherwise is ascertained. Those who are at risk of complications, such as the elderly, would be kept at Mater Dei; those at a lesser risk would be kept at other facilities, while those with no risk can be kept at home, where a doctor will communicate with them everyday either through video-conferencing or through the telephone. If the case is a child, then an assessment, even on site, by a paediatrician will be done.  

Asked whether there where any predictions as to when the peak of the outbreak would be reached, Gauci said that any predictions depend on where is hit by the outbreak.  She said that the disease’s spread depends on everyone’s personal responsibility.

“If people have symptoms and stay home then we are going to limit how they are spread”, she said.

 The first part of the video is without sound because of circumstances beyond our control