Ten new COVID-19 cases have been detected in the last 24 hours, with most traced back to a cluster from a religious feast in Santa Venera. 

With no new recoveries recorded, the number of positive cases in Malta has now reached 150.

The country is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 linked to large groups of people gathering together. 

The number includes 85 migrants who registered positive for the virus on being tested after they were taken ashore. Health authorities initially failed to include them in the country's official figures, giving no explanation.

But from Friday, the numbers were included following advice from the European Centre for Disease Control.

Six of Friday's new cases form part of the Sta Venera feast cluster while the rest are sporadic. That means they have no known connection to other patients. Almost all did not attend work while symptomatic, the health authorities said.

Restrictions on mass events were announced on Thursday in a bid to control the rising numbers.

The measures taken are, however, not being seen as sufficient by doctors who have described them as "too little, too late". They said industrial action they warned about on Wednesday will still go ahead unless events, including planned international music festivals, are cancelled.

The latest figures bring the total number of cases in Malta to 824.

A total of 1,314 swabs were carried out overnight.

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