Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said 9 Coronavirus cases were registered today, while 13 patients have recovered.
This brings the total number of cases registered since 7 March to 477, with four patients passed away. The total number of recovered cases as of today is 392, which leaves 81 active cases.
The nine positive results came as a result of 1,071 swab tests carried out over the past 24 hours. In total, the country has conducted 35,012 swab tests.
Five of the 9 new positive cases showed no symptoms, Gauci said.
One patient is a Maltese 22-year-old male student, another is a 33-year-old man and the third is a 30-year-old man. The fourth is a 27-year-old man. Contact tracing exercises are being carried out, and all these three were found through the enhanced testing exercise.
The fifth is a 21-year-old Spanish woman.
There were two cases who had slight symptoms. The first was a 19-year-old woman who was tested prior to undergoing an operation. She had indicated, back in 25 April, that she lost her taste. This is one of the symptoms of Covid-19.
The second is a 45-year-old Maltese man also tested pre-operation. On 30 April he lost his sense of smell.
The other two cases are of an 18-year-old man who on 29 April had a headache and diarrhoea and didn't go to work, and a Maltese woman, 35, who had a sore throat. Contact tracing is underway.
Gauci stressed the importance of protecting vulnerable people in society and also urged the continuation of social distancing.
She said that the number of people in hospital with the virus has reduced, 7 are in Sir Paul Boffa Hospital, 5 in St Thomas Hospital, 1 in the ITU and one in the Infectious Diseases Unit.
Of the 13 people who recovered, 7 are people aged between 20 - 29, one between 20 and 39, and 5 between 50 and 60
Speaking about the web-based testing app Gauci said that "26,699 people tried the app."
She encouraged the public to make use of the app in order to carry out a personal risk assessment, to see if one needs to take the swabbing test or not. Gauci added that this is an open source project, therefore if there are any people who understand this topic, they should give feedback to the Health Authorities in order to improve the system."
Due to the lifting of measures - non-essential outlets are to open from Monday 4th May - the Health Authorities have now recommended that the public is to wear masks in both essential and non-essential shops, including supermarkets. She said that "this is very important to do as we know that virus can be transferred from one person to another. Therefore, when you wear a mask, you will be protecting the people around you by not spreading the virus to others, as one might have the virus without even knowing it."
"If the whole community wears a mask, everyone will be able to protect one another."
Gauci explained that there a number of different masks such as medical masks, non-medical masks or visors. Non-medical masks are made of a typical material, however they can also be knitted.
She said that when knitting masks it is important to use "material that is 100% cotton, and when knitting the mask, one should make use of three to four layers of fabric one top of each other."
Visors are also effective - you can buy one and keep using it after cleaning it properly.
The most important thing is knowing how to wear a mask/visor and how to remove it. She explained that it is important "to clean your hands properly before and after you touch or put the mask on, it is important to cover the nose, mouth and chin and that the mask has a tight fit with your face."
Gauci appealed that masks should not be thrown away on the floor as you would be risking others.
Asked by The Malta Independent about whether the Health Authorities are expecting to see an increase in testing and positive cases, now that the government is lifting measures Gauci explained that "the Health authorities have the capacity, together with the laboratory of Mater Dei, to carry out a large amount of testing. Through surveillance we also have a strong contact tracing procedure to identify who was in contract with the person who tested positive. These are the principles which will help us to reduce our measures."
Asked by other media houses whether the Health Authorities are concerned with an increase in the rfactor, Gauci confirmed that "there will be an increase in the rfactor due to the increase in numbers of positive cases today, however this was expected." She continued on explaining that "in order to keep the Rfactor as low as possible, the public need to cooperate and abide and following the measures that have put in place."
Although the government decided to lift a number of measures, Gauci said that the "other measures which are still in place - such as the gathering of people in other households - still apply."
In addition, due to the summer months approaching, many people are now more eager to go to the beach. Gauci explained that it is "still very important to abide by social distancing measure and to avoid meeting people that are not in the same household. Meeting other people who are outside your household, would lead to exposing others to germs that you may have without even knowing it."
Several parents who work in the retail business are to go back to work on Monday, however due to the fact that schools are still closed, this might cause numerous problems. Asked whether the Health Authorities predicted that such a problem would arise Gauci explained that "we are making sure that help is being provided on how these parents can still work in some way or another. The most important thing is that children stay at home."
Asked whether people can start spending time with their relatives who are vulnerable and in lockdown Gauci stressed that "it is still very important to protect them as this was the only way that we managed to control this situation."