Health authorities announced 237 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, continuing a trend of high daily infection numbers. 

The new cases were detected from 3,578 swab tests, resulting in a 6.6 per cent positivity rate.  

For the second time in two weeks, no COVID-19 related deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, with the pandemic death toll remaining stable at 313. 

Meanwhile, 168 patients recovered from the virus between Friday and Saturday. As a result, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 2,651 as of 12.30pm on Saturday. 

Data provided by the Health Ministry indicated that healthcare workers administered 2,515 vaccine doses over the past 24 hours. 

76,159 vaccines have been administered in total so far, with 25,118 of those being second doses.

Malta is currently leading the EU in terms of vaccine rollout speed, with the country administering more first and second doses relative to its population than any other EU member state. 

However, while vaccination appears to be reducing the hospitalisation rate of vulnerable people, the virus infection rate has risen in the past weeks. Authorities have attributed the rise to a more contagious UK variant, less respect for social distancing rules and revised rules for rapid testing.