Malta’s Covid-19 reproduction number has remained below 1, and now stands at 0.91, statistician Vincent Marmara told The Malta Independent on Sunday in his exclusive weekly video blog on the Covid-19 situation in Malta.

The reproduction factor of the virus is one of the key figures which countries across the world have been trying to reduce ever since the Covid-19 pandemic began. The aim for countries has been to reduce the ratio to a level of 1 – which would mean that one person would transmit the virus to one other person.

The reproduction number is based on a variety of factors, such as the source of new cases – for instance, whether they are imported or whether they are part of particular clusters – and the amount of testing being carried out.

Marmara explained with the data pertaining to this week, which has remained very similar to last week, the r-factor has remained below 1, going down from 0.93 to 0.91.

Even though the r-factor is below 1, Marmara noted that everyone’s efforts and responsibility must continue so that the number of cases can continue to decrease.

The number of cases found in the past week is 819 – practically identical to the 820 cases found last week, but statistically very similar.

Marmara’s figures show in fact that the number of positive cases when compared to the number of tests stands at 4.0% - identical to the figure reported last week, and slightly lower to the figure reported in the three weeks prior.

However, unfortunately the past week saw the highest number of deaths related to Covid-19 be reported since the pandemic began, with 21 deaths.  This is slightly higher than the 20 deaths reported in the previous week.

Meanwhile, 823 people recovered from the virus in the past week –less than the 891 who recovered last week, but similar to the 826 who recovered in the week prior.

This means that the number of people recovering was practically identical to the number of people testing positive in the last week.

Delving into some details about the situation overseas, Marmara said noted how cases have decreased in the past week in France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.  The number of cases meanwhile has remained stable in Germany.  

Concluding, Marmara noted that while there has been positive news in recent days and weeks with regards to the vaccine, the public must remain patient for a bit longer and continue to follow the measures which are in place in order to keep the number of cases down.