Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said 14 new Coronavirus cases were registered, while seven have recovered.

In all, the number of cases so far is 522, with six deaths. There are 73 active cases, while 443 patients have recovered.

Gauci said that 1,321 swab tests were carried out yesterday, bringing the total to 45,967.

The number of cases found today is the eighth worse day in terms of numbers. The worst day remains 7 April with 52 cases, followed by 38 on 9 April (see graph below)

Three of the new cases are of health workers at Mater Dei Hospital, while two were diagnosed at Karen Grech Hospital. Another health care worker at St Vincent de Paul home for the elderly also tested positive, as also did a person who had come in contact with a health care worker who had tested positive in previous days.

Giving more information, Gauci said that the SVPR health worker is a man aged 58, while the two persons who tested positive at Karen Grech were two patients - a man from Sudan aged 23 and a Maltese man aged 84, both of whom had no symptoms but were tested as part of the screening process taking place.

A 37-year-old woman who came in contact with a health care worker who tested positive in previous days was also diagnosed with the virus, Gauci said.

The three health care workers at Mater Dei Hospital who tested positive in the last day were two men aged 28 and 38, and a 49-year-old woman.

The rest of the cases included two people who had gone to the Emergency Department with unrelated conditions - an Italian 44-year-old man and a 32-year-old Maltese woman.

There was also a 54-year-old man who had stomach trouble and tested positive, a 33-year-old man who had no symptoms, a 27-year-old woman from Macedonia and a 27-year-old man.

The last case was of a 31-year-old man who is a vulnerable person and is being kept at Mater Dei Hospital.

Gauci said that the latter is the only patient at MDH, while another two are at Boffa Hospital, four at St Thomas Hospital and three at Karin Grech hospital.

Of the seven people who receovered, one each is in the 20s, 40s and 60s, two each in the 30s and 50s.

Asked by The Malta Independent whether if such an increase of cases is sustained it would affect what measures are relaxed and when they are relaxed, Gauci said that there have been cases where there have been spikes in the number of cases and that it is the average number across a number of days is taken into account when calculating the reproduction factor.

Asked whether authorities had evaluated the possibility of reserving certain hours dedicated to the elderly to be able to go shopping, Gauci said that this is something which authorities had analysed but had found that when limiting certain people to specific hours it increases the possibility of having queues outside these outlets.

Gauci said that healthcare workers are also members of the community, meaning that they have the same risk of coming into contact with the virus as others.

She said that the number of healthcare workers affected by the virus is similar to the averages presented by the European Centre for Disease Control, and noted that authorities are carrying out rigorous studies on healthcare workers by testing not only those with symptoms, but randomly testing those without as well.

She said that it is important for people to wear masks or a visor in hospital or at health centres, and also noted that the ventilation system at Mater Dei is being regularly maintained.

Faced with a question over reports that government workers are being called into work even though they can work from home, Gauci said that in order to mitigate the spread of the virus, those who can work from home should continue to do so if possible.

Asked whether it is true that emergency and ITU doctors are being asked to clean their own visors, Gauci said that employees at Mater Dei were given their own personal visor and that hence they are responsible for making sure it is kept clean.

Asked about the choice between masks and visors for the public, Gauci said that each have their benefits and that it is a personal choice on which to use.  She noted that visors, once cleaned properly, can be re-used – as can masks which are made at home.  When it comes to disposable masks, Gauci said that the procedure for throwing these away is of most importance – noting that these masks when used should be kept in a plastic bag before being thrown away.

Gauci said that so far there had not been any reports of recovered patients facing other symptoms after recovering, but these people are volunteering to help authorities with the validation of antibody kits by offering to give blood. They are also offering help in clinical trials to use plasma for treatment for other patients.