Malta has reported 34 new COVID-19 patients as well as a further ten living in closed migrant centres.

Some 38 people recovered, bringing the number of people currently positive for coronavirus to 424.

Migrants are automatically kept in quarantine upon their disembarkation, and Malta does not include migrant positive cases in its official data, following approval from the European Centre for Disease Control.

According to data published by the health authorities on Thursday, 2,438 tests were carried out between Wednesday and Thursday.

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While contact tracing for the new cases is ongoing, six of Wednesday's 22 cases were related to a previously known case while another three were direct contacts of positive cases. 

Another two cases were traced to the workplace.

As the number of tests continues to increase, following the opening of two new swabbing centres, so does the work for contact tracers.

However, tracers have told Times of Malta they often face lies and even abuse, with one young volunteer denouncing the “huge waste of time”.

As things stand, the rate of spread of COVID-19 - the R factor- is down to 1.2, however, public health chief Charmaine Gauci is insisting that Malta is still "not out of the woods" yet.

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Over the past 24 hours Malta has also removed Bulgaria from its ‘amber’ list of countries intended to reduce the risks of imported cases of coronavirus. 

The removal means arrivals from the country will no longer need to present a negative COVID-19 test. Bulgaria, Romania, and the Spanish regions of Barcelona, Girona and Madrid were put on the list when Malta introduced it two weeks ago. The Czech Republic and Tunisia were added last week.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen countries have travel restrictions on arrivals from Malta, because of the high number of cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks. 

It currently ranks third in the EU in terms of active cases, with Spain topping the list and France coming second, according to the European Centre of Disease Control.

However Malta also has one of the highest testing rates in the EU.