As Malta recorded the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in three weeks, the public health superintendent said on Saturday it was still too soon to say when measures to limit the spread would be lifted.
Charmaine Gauci said the health authorities would go through “all the evidence” before lifting any measures.
The tally of new coronavirus cases has been relatively low for a number of days. Only four people tested positive for the virus between Friday and Saturday, three of them residents at the Ħal Far open centre, and a 34-year-old Italian man linked to a previously diagnosed patient.
The last time authorities registered fewer cases was on March 29, when only two new cases were recorded.
However, it was still too early to talk about easing measures, Gauci said. She pointed to some countries, such as Japan, that had lifted measures but then experienced another rise in infections.
“We need to take decisions based on evidence,” she insisted in answer to questions.
While acknowledging it was good news that the number of new cases reported daily remained on the low side, she said this should not serve as an excuse for people to be less vigilant.
The numbers could very easily spike if people did not obey social distancing rules
She urged everyone to stay indoors and warned that the numbers could very easily spike if people did not obey social distancing guidelines.
The new patients take the number of confirmed cases in Malta to 426. However, a further eight have recovered, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 99. Three people have so far died of COVID-19.
Gauci also said the authorities were running tests on people who died suddenly or where the cause of death was not clear, to ensure statistics accurately represent the total number of cases.
The reassurance comes after China revised its calculation of COVID-19 deaths in Wuhan upwards by 50%, saying a number of patients who died in the early days of the outbreak inside their homes had not previously been counted among official figures.
The WHO has also updated its guidelines about determining when a person is judged to have died of coronavirus, Gauci said, and the authorities were looking at them to adapt methodologies accordingly.
On immunity, Gauci said that scientists still do not have clarity about whether it is conferred to those who recover and more studies were needed. There was also uncertainty about the validity of existing serology test kits which can detect antibodies. The health authorities were testing a number of them to make sure the ones used would give accurate results.
A valid serology test would allow authorities to start running community tests to determine how widely the COVID-19 infection had spread. It would also help them estimate what percentage of the population has already been infected.
Using a faulty kit would lead to wrong data and mislead authorities, Gauci said.