A further 172 people tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, while 65 patients recovered overnight. 

A total of 19 people are being treated at Mater Dei Hospital, two more than the previous day. One patient remains in intensive care.

The results emerged from a total of 3,640 swab tests held over the previous 24 hours. 

With the repatriation of a group of 97 COVID-positive French students on Thursday, the number of active cases in Malta increased marginally from 2,487 to 2,497 on Friday. 

Another group of Spanish students, who also tested positive to the virus and have been in quarantine in Malta, will be leaving on friday.

English language students recently made headlines after a quarter of new COVID were traced to young people attending language schools.

Right now, Malta's COVID rates are the fifth-highest in the EU, with only Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands having a higher case rate.

However, the country is the only one in the EU to have a death rate of zero.

Vaccinations

The same official data shows that 364,899 people in Malta are now fully vaccinated.

On Friday, Times of Malta reported that people who took the J&J vaccine in Malta are having trouble using their digital COVID certificate in other EU countries.

Government applications in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg, which are being used to verify EU digital COVID certificates through scanning the QR code, are reading the certificates as invalid.

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