Updated at 1.30pm with absence of swab data and tallies. 

Health Minister Chris Fearne has signalled a shift in the focus from COVID-19 daily case numbers to hospitalisation rates.

He said the "main emphasis" of the daily COVID-19 update will be placed on the number of people being treated in hospital and in intensive care (ITU).

Swab test data and total tallies since the first day of the pandemic which are normally published daily were not included in the first new-look infographic which came out later on Tuesday afternoon. 

At 12.30pm every day, the ministry's Facebook page, Saħħa, shares a graphic detailing statistics such as daily cases, recoveries, deaths and vaccine numbers.

Until now the focus has been on the daily case numbers, with the hospitalisations added as a footnote. 

Fearne announced the change in policy in a tweet on Tuesday and said there are currently 29 people in hospital, with two being cared for in ITU.  

The change in infographic appears to signal the authorities' intention to shift attention away from the spread of the virus and towards the generally smaller number of cases that actually end up requiring hospital care.

This is the second major change to Malta’s COVID-19 daily data.

In January, Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci announced that vaccination figures would be added to the infographic released on the government’s Saħħa page on Facebook. 

On Monday, Malta recorded 39 new cases and 49 recoveries, bringing the number of active cases to 710. 

A 77-year-old man died, meaning the overal number of people to die while COVID-19 positive in Malta is 445.