The situation at Mater Dei Hospital pertaining to Covid-19 has been described as “stable”, with Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci saying in an interview that the majority of people are in hospital not due to Covid-19, but for other reasons.

This was announced by Gauci on the Ask Charmaine programme hosted by Times of Malta.

Speaking about hospitalisations, Gauci said that the situation is stable and that the majority of Covid-19 cases in hospital were actually patients admitted for other reasons and were then found to be carrying the virus.

The number of people suffering from complications and finding themselves in intensive care is on a downward trend, she said.

Gauci also said that standards pertaining to the new vaccination certificate requirements, which come into force on 17 January, will be published next week.

This will include dealing with situations such as people who have been positive for the virus and therefore cannot take the booster before four weeks from their recovery has elapsed.

Gauci also announced that people who test positive for Covid-19 will not receive a separate notice telling them for how long they need to quarantine, but will instead be informed that they and their household must quarantine and then be left to work out the length of that period themselves.

Instead of being told specifically how long they need to quarantine, those who test positive for Covid-19 will receive a notice telling them as such and that they and their household have to quarantine.

Patients will then have to work out the length of their quarantine on the basis of their own personal situation, with the test day being considered as day zero from when quarantine must begin.

The notice can be shown to employers.

New quarantine rules were introduced last Monday, which placed renewed emphasis on the vaccine booster shot.

Quarantine for positive cases has been reduced from 14 days to 10 days as long as the person who tests positive has taken the booster dose, and as long as they show no symptoms for the virus for three days prior to the end of that 10-day period.

Those living in the same household can also exit quarantine after 10 days as long as they and the infected person have had the booster.

If not, then the entire household must quarantine for 14 days.

Primary contacts who were fully vaccinated can exit quarantine after seven days as long as they test negative for the virus after the contact took place and a week later, while secondary contacts – who are those who have met a primary contact – who have received the booster dose do not need to quarantine at all.