Social media influencer Henry Galea has opened up about the death of his stepfather, Enzo Abela, who succumbed to COVID-19 on Tuesday, aged 52.

Galea expressed shock and disbelief as he stood in front of his camera and opened up to his Instagram followers as he made an emotional plea, urging them to be vigilant and get vaccinated.

"He was in ITU. He was very, very bad. It attacked him badly," Galea said.

"Please be careful and go get vaccinated. Do whatever you can to prevent it."

Abela was a celebrated artist and carnival enthusiast. He was known for his detailed, huge papier-mache sculptures on carnival floats and his meticulous dedication to painting carnival decorations.

He was one of two men who died while infected with COVID-19 on Tuesday. The other man was 53.

In a post on Facebook, Galea said his stepfather had encouraged him to follow his artistic dreams and he had promised him he will keep working to achieve what they had dreamt of together.

The deaths were announced by the health authorities on Wednesday when the number of new COVID-19 cases soared to an all-time record of 582.

This is 72 more than the previous record of daily cases set on March 10 last year.

Despite the concerning rise in the number of cases, Maltese authorities are yet to confirm the first case of the Omicron variant.