Malta announced 329 new COVID-19 cases and five more deaths on Friday, as restrictions to curb the virus and ease pressure on health services enter their second day.

Among the patients who died were a 38-year-old man, who died at Mater Dei Hospital, and a 47-year-old woman who died at her house. A man aged 73 and woman aged 85 died at Mater Dei Hospital, while a 62-year-old man died at home.  

The five deaths bring the number of people in Malta who died while positive for the virus up to 346.

The new cases were detected from 3,779 tests administered. 

Meanwhile, another 259 people recovered from the virus, meaning Malta has 3,188 active COVID-19 cases.

Malta opened its fourth COVID-19 intensive therapy unit in recent hours to keep up with the growing number of patients needing intensive care. Healthcare workers are now "extremely worried" the hospital could soon buckle under the increasing pressure. 

In its weekly update covering a 14-day period, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reported on Thursday that Malta has now the third-highest number of new cases in Europe, following Czechia and Estonia.

The virus R factor currently stands at 1.5, public health chief Charmaine Gauci said during her weekly COVID-19 briefing.

Vaccination

So far, 113,258 vaccine jabs have been administered, 37,182 of which are second doses.

Recent high numbers have led to a month-long shutdown being declared on Wednesday with schools and services being closed and travel to Gozo being reduced to the essential.

The UK variant of the virus now accounts for almost 61 per cent of all new COVID-19 cases in Malta.

Addressing Parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Robert Abela insisted all his COVID-19 decisions were "guided by scientific evidence".