The average age at death for COVID-19 victims is now the youngest ever, at 68.3 years, amid a "substantial" number of patients being treated in intensive care, Charmaine Gauci has revealed.
In her weekly update on the virus in Malta, the superintendent of public health said authorities expected the death rate to rise following record numbers of cases.
On Friday, there were five more deaths, with the victims aged 38 to 85 years old. Three were patients at Mater Dei while two died in their homes.
"Once you have a spike in numbers, you expect the number of deaths, and hospitalisations to occur," she said.
Grech was speaking after the island opened its sixth intensive treatment unit to cope with patients and amid a quasi-lockdown until April 11.
Watch the news conference live below
Addressing the situation at Malta's intensive care units, she described the number of people receiving treatment as "substantial" with 34 people treated with intensive care in Malta and Gozo.
She was unable to say what the staff-to-patient ratio was, directing questions to the management of Mater Dei.
Asked about why two patients died in their homes, she said this was because "of a number of reasons". While she could not give details on individual cases, she said some people have chronic illnesses and so the progression of the illness was too rapid for hospitalisation.
While she said the UK variant, which now accounts for 61 per cent of new cases, is more infectious, research on whether it is more aggressive is "still coming out."
Where are patients treated?
Overall there are 245 people being treated in hospital. There are:
- 29 in Mater Dei's intensive treatment unit;
- 10 in the Mater Dei's infectious diseases unit;
- 100 in other Mater Dei wards;
- 17 in Gozo, including five in intensive care;
- 14 in Boffa;
- 23 in St Thomas;
- Six in Karin Grech;
- 31 in the Good Samaritan facility;
- 15 in Mount Carmel.
She also revealed that despite the vaccination drive, there are still some cases in homes for the elderly but said that the numbers are much lower and "even if there are people infected, if vaccinated, their symptoms are less".
The majority of cases are now among 15-49-year-olds but there has been "some spillover" into the 50-74 age group.
How are people being infected?
The R factor, or rate of infection, stands at 1.5, meaning the average COVID-19 patient infects at least one other person.
Data until March 7, before the latest restrictions kicked in, showed that the largest cluster of cases was in households with 333 cases.
Gatherings were next, with 155 cases, followed by workplaces, institutions and education. In Gozo, there are 169 patients, with the remaining cases in Malta.
Just two people of the 909 tested at the airport between March 4-10 tested positive: a person from Poland and one from Spain.
What about the vaccine rollout?
Gauci said the timeline for the vaccine rollout has been moved forward by some weeks and said 15,000 people in education had now received the jab. Overall, 113,258 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccine helpline, 145, was down at one point because of the number of people calling it. She encouraged people to wait for a letter inviting them for the jab.
There are now 40 vaccination centres across the island, Gauci said, including a large one that opened in MCAST on Thursday.
On Thursday Malta was also among a list of countries continuing to back the Oxford-AstraZenca jab after other several other countries suspended their use of the shot to investigate cases of blood clots.
Gauci reiterated that people who were vaccinated with the batch in Malta had no health issues and said the European Medicines Agency, which said there is currently no indication the vaccine caused the condition.
Her briefing also comes a day after a fourth vaccine, by Johnson & Johnson was approved for use in the EU. She could not say when the doses would arrive in Malta.