Four more patients with Covid-19 have died while the number of active cases dropped to below 7,000 for the first time since 27 December, figures released on Saturday show.

The four latest victims are a woman aged 89, and three men aged 79, 81 and 86. They take the tally to 525.

The number of active cases is now 6,926, after 285 new cases were found and 1,296 people recovered.

The health authorities said that 100 people are still in hospital with Covid, with eight of them in intenive care.

The number of vaccination doses administered has reached 1,191,768, of which 320,386 are booster doses.

Malta has had 65,534 cases of the virus. 57,700 of those have recovered.