Bormla nursing home on lockdown after COVID-19 case found

A home for the elderly in Bormla has been placed on lockdown after one of its residents tested positive for COVID-19.

The resident, a 98-year-old woman, was one of the five new cases of COVID-19 found overnight.

She has been transferred to St Thomas Hospital as a precaution, the Health Ministry said this evening.

All other residents at the home, as well as staff, have been tested for the virus and are awaiting their results.

The elderly residents have also been placed in quarantine in their rooms.

Visits from family members - which had been taking place through the use of a perspex barrier to separate visitors from residents - have been suspended at the home as a precaution.

The positive case was detected through the routine swab tests which are being carried out in retirement homes, the ministry said.