A ward at Mount Carmel Hospital in H’Attard has been closed and isolated after a healthcare worker tested positive for Covid-19, The Malta Independent can confirm.

A spokesperson for the Ministry for Health confirmed that a ward at the hospital had been closed and isolated after a healthcare worker tested positive for the virus in the past days.

The spokesperson said that all the patients within that ward will be swabbed and isolated there, while the workers who came into contact with the person who tested positive have also been placed in quarantine and will be swabbed as well.

No patients will be admitted into the ward in question.

The spokesperson noted that health authorities are following the usual practices as established in the earlier days of the pandemic.

The worker who tested positive, tested as such after attending the Hotel Takeover event at the Radisson Blu Hotel in St. Julian’s last weekend.

A total of seven positive cases have been found related to the party, with one being found on Thursday and six on Friday. Authorities have appealed for all those who attended the party to contact 111 and get an appointment for a swab test.  They have also been advised to give special attention to any symptoms they may develop, irrespective of how light they are.

The organisers of the party in question have said that they took all the precautionary measures required including scanning the temperature of every attendee and listing down their temperature next to their name, and if they went out of hotel they were rechecked for temperature as well.

However, both the event and the hotel have faced backlash from the public as the situation spread all over the media.

The hotel has since cancelled another weekend event that was supposed to take place within its premises.

This is the first time in a long time that Malta has been faced with a spike in cases after weeks of registering almost no new cases.