[WATCH] Six new cases of COVID-19 bring total to 384

Six new cases of COVID-19 were registered overnight, bringing the total to 384, Public Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci said.

The new cases were all local transmission, with Gauci insisting that Malta was still at the start of the pandemic curve.

Malta has so far registered three deaths and 44 recoveries.

The six new cases involve five men and one woman.

Six new cases

One of the men is a 34-year-old Nepalese resident in Malta who lived with 10 other people in the community. These have been placed in quarantine.

Another 24-year-old man is a resident at the Hal Far migrant open centre, bringing the total cases there to 19. The open centre was locked down and the more than 1,000 residents placed in quarantine more than a week ago. A Red Cross team is on site to provide medical care.

A 40-year-old Norwegian woman first developed a cough on 24 March but got tested when she later developed a headache. She had been working from home all this time, Gauci said.

The other cases involved Maltese men aged 59, 32 and 34, and contact tracing was being carried out to determine who may have been exposed to them.

Gauci confirmed that two workers at ST Microelectronics had tested positive and a risk assessment of the workplace was carried out. People who came in touch with these two workers have been quarantined and the respective work area disinfected.

'Leave if there are many people'

The public health chief again cautioned against congregating in public but stopped short of saying beaches should be closed. "The advice remains the same: people should stay at home unless it is necessary to go out. Those who are not old and have no vulnerablility and who decide to go to the beach should leave if there are many people," she said, reacting to yesterday's situation that saw people taking to sandy beaches to enjoy the fine weather.

No indication of normality

Asked whether the health authorities had an indication of when the situation could start to return to normal, Gauci said it all depended on the R Factor, the virus transmission rate. "When the R Factor falls below one we can start to return to normal but we all have to pull the same rope... the fact that we cannot identify all sources of infection means that the virus is spreading in the community and the only way to beat it is by staying at home and avoid contact with people," Gauci said.

Closure of ports for migrants

Gauci said the decision to close Malta's ports for migrants was "part of the contingency plan", however was evasive when asked whether she was involved in the decision taken by Cabinet last week.

She insisted that Malta will ensure care to migrants who arrive. "We will provide care to protect the migrants and the community. We tested all people who arrived on the last boat that came and they all turned out negative for COVID-19."

Quick facts:

• 6 new cases overnight
• 1,008 tests carried out overnight
• 384 total cases so far
• 18,065 tests since start of pandemic