A record high 224 new cases of Covid-19 were found overnight, health authorities reported on Wednesday during their daily update.

The new tally is a record, surpassing the recent record of 218 which was registered on 2 November.

80 people have recovered, while another Covid-19 patient has died, taking the total number of deaths related to the virus up to 227.

The patient who died was a 72-year-old man who tested positive on 31 December. The man passed away yesterday at Mater Dei Hospital.

The number of active cases has now increased sharply to 1,845.

3,365 swab tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of swab tests up to 530,223.

Authorities said that today’s cases are still being investigated, but gave details about the cases reported yesterday.

Out of the 158 cases reported on Tuesday: 32 cases were family members of previously known cases, 20 were direct contacts of other cases, 12 were social gatherings with other positive cases, and 10 were work colleagues of positive cases.

Malta has now had 13,612 cases of Covid-19.  11,540 of those have recovered, while 227 have died.