Another 37 new coronavirus cases have been recorded by the health authorities overnight. There were also 44 recoveries.

The brings the number of people with COVID-19 to 657, marking the fourth day in a row that the number of active cases went down. 

The new cases announced on Thursday were detected after 2,542 tests.

Since the pandemic reached Malta in March, there have been 1,788 known cases of COVID-19, including 10 deaths.

Thursday was the 29th consecutive day that Malta registered a double-digit increase in the daily number of new cases as the country experienced a significant spike in cases over the past month.

Case details

The health authorities said that Thursday’s cases are still being investigated.

From the cases recorded on Wednesday:

• 18 were family members of previously recorded cases;

• six had direct contacts with known cases;

• six were work colleagues of positive cases;

No information was given about the remaining cases, which the authorities are still in the process of evaluating.

Times of Malta is informed that contact tracing has become a difficult task since people tend to go out more than they did in the previous months.

In some cases, a contact tracing interview can last for some three hours, with the COVID-19 patients providing a long list of potential contacts, therefore making it difficult to trace connections.