48 new COVID-19 cases, nine linked to elderly care homes

48 new cases of COVID-19 have been registered overnight, according to the latest figures released by the Health Ministry.

The ministry said that nine of today’s cases were related to elderly care homes, five were family members of previously known cases, four were direct contacts of known cases, three were work colleagues of positive cases, two formed part of the Mount Carmel cluster, two formed part of the language schools cluster and one formed part of the Paceville cluster.

Seven more people have since recovered from the virus. The number of active cases now stands at 648.

Since the start of the pandemic in March, 766 people have recovered from the virus and nine patients have died.

In the past 24 hours, 2,124 swab tests were carried out. With a grand total of 161,057 tests having been carried out so far on the island.