The reproduction rate of COVID-19 in our community is stable at 0.5 and this is thanks to all the measures taken since 11 March, statistician Vincent Marmara said.

In his weekly blog for The Malta Independent on Sunday, Marmara said statistics show clearly that during the past week Malta experienced a reduction in cases. Fewer cases were reported day after day. Even when one compares the number of positive cases to the total number of swabs done, the number of cases is much less. In fact, now it is at 2.1%.

This positive trend resulted also in fewer deaths and during the past week Malta had 23% more patients who recovered when compared to new cases of COVID-19.

Marmara also confirmed that the vaccination process is a steady and positive one. Malta has 20% of the population completely vaccinated and more than 40% had at least got the first vaccine shot. These numbers still put Malta in the first places when compared to vaccination in other countries.

When looking at other European countries, statistics show that UK is experiencing a substantial reduction in cases, while France and Italy have fewer cases this week. When it comes to Spain, they are still at the same levels as the past weeks. On the other hand, Germany, after having a surge in cases, this week was also a positive one for them as they registered less positive cases.

Nowadays scientists have learnt a lot about COVID-19 and have more knowns than unknowns especially when compared to April 2020, Marmara said. We all know more about which measures work and which don’t. But unfortunately the variants that are developing from time to time are still unknown factors. There are a number of considerable researches happening to determine certain facts on how on COVID-19 changes and how to prevent this from happening. Not only but also to continue to develop the vaccines so that they will be also effective when it comes to COVID variants.