The authorities identified 462 new cases over the past 24 hours, and 1,261 people have recovered.

Fearne said there are 108 patients at Mater Dei Hospital, of which eight are being treated in the Intensive Therapy Unit.

In their daily update, authorities said that four had died while positive for the virus, rather than five, and identified those who passed away as a man aged 87, and three women aged 71, 76, and 93.

A previous version of this article stated that five people had died while Covid-19 positive, quoting Health Minister Chris Fearne who announced as such during a press conference.

The number of active cases meanwhile has dropped to 12,301.

1,152,980 doses of the vaccine have been administered, with 293,394 of those being booster doses.

The Deputy PM noted the grave warning issued earlier this week by the regional director of the World Health Organisation, Hans Kluge, who said the worst of the pandemic is yet to come.

Indeed, the WHO expects that half the European population will have been infected with Covid over the coming weeks and months.

Fearne said 92% of all new Covid cases in Malta are of the Omicron variant. Hospitalisations could increase in the coming weeks as community spread increases, he said.

Malta has registered 62,328 cases of the virus. 49,178 of those have recovered, while 500 have died.