A third Jesuit priest - Fr Robbie Wirth - has died of COVID-19 and become the 66th person to die while infected with the virus.

He was 86 years old. 

In an email to Jesuit alumni, the order remembered Fr Robbie as "a very jovial person and a person who worked incessantly to promote the Sacred Heart of Jesus, always reminding us what a great feast it was that we celebrated when we were at College". 

Funeral details would announced in due course, the order said.

Fr Robbie joined the Jesuits when he was 17 years old and spent several decades working in India, where he led a youth leadership programme in schools and colleges. 

He returned to Malta in 1991, he told a scholastic novice in a video interview published earlier this year. 

Two other Jesuits - Fr Lino Cardona and Fr Edward Mercieca, died from the virus last week.

Fr Wirth’s death, which had not yet been announced by the health authorities at the time of writing, follows that of an 82-year-old man on Tuesday.

Eighty-four new COVID-19 cases were registered on Wednesday.