Frank Portelli’s sister Rosalie has died of Coronavirus in the UK, the former Nationalist Party President of the Executive has said.

Writing on Facebook Portelli, who three years ago contested the PN leadership race, said that “Rosalie is gone”.

Rosalie Freestone-Bayes, 77, was diabetic and suffered from high blood pressure but was otherwise healthy.

“She did not have any serious medical conditions and I strongly suspect she contracted the virus when she went to the hospital for some heart-related tests and it just tipped her over," Portelli told Times of Malta. 

"Let this serve as a lesson that people who are over 60 years old and have any slight medical condition like diabetes or high blood pressure, it can kill, as it did to my sister,” he said. 

Portelli last spoke to his sister via messaging six days ago, before she was sedated and eventually fell into a coma.