Six Covid-19 patients have died as the number of active cases continues to drop, figures released by the health authorities show.

It is the highest number of deaths in a single day. Malta registered five deaths in a single day on several occasions, but never six until today.

The youngest of the new victims is a man aged 47, with two other men aged 75 and 79 also passing away.

Three women, 75,  79 and 97, also died.

The total number of victims since the pandemic started is now 520.

The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has dropped to below 100, with 94 patients in treatment, eight of whom in intensive care.

The authorities said that 286 new cases were recorded, with 552 recoveries, which brings down the number of active cases to 8,698, the lowest since 29 December.

So far, 1,184,262 vaccination doses have been administered, of which 315,683 are booster jabs.

Malta has had 64,943 cases of the virus. 55,342 of those have recovered.