Health authorities are trying to figure out whether a 98-year-old woman who tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days contracted it at Mater Dei Hospital or at the old people’s home where she lives. 

On Friday evening, the government announced that all visits to a home for the elderly in Cospicua would be halted after the woman resident tested positive for the virus.

The senior citizen was one of five patients who tested positive for the virus between Thursday and Friday.

Medical sources told Times of Malta that the woman had been taken to Mater Dei Hospital for treatment unrelated to the virus earlier this week. On arrival, she had been swabbed for the virus and tested negative.

A swab taken when she left the hospital and returned to the old people’s home, however, had come back positive, raising concerns that she may have contracted the virus while at Mater Dei. 

The sources said it was not yet clear whether the woman had indeed contracted the virus at the hospital as she may have been carrying it – in incubation – when she first arrived for treatment. 

However, Times of Malta is informed that “a significant number” of healthcare workers at Mater Dei who had been in contact with the woman have since been put in precautionary quarantine to establish whether there is a node of the virus there. 

Not clear whether woman had indeed contracted the virus at the hospital

A similar exercise is being conducted at the Cospicua residence to identify whether any other residents have the virus. A woman, who shared a room with the positive patient, has also been placed in quarantine.

Authorities said that all tests related to contact tracing of Friday’s new COVID-19 cases had so far come in negative.

“It is close to impossible to be certain where this patient contracted the virus due to the nature of transmission. However, we are undertaking contact tracing to try to establish what happened and whether there is a spread in either hospital or the elderly residence,” one healthcare source privy to the case said. 

The elderly woman has been transferred to St Thomas Hospital for treatment. One source said the woman had gone to Mater Dei Hospital to be helped with a ventilator.

The virus could be particularly dangerous for the elderly, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions.