Another 345 COVID-19 cases were announced on Saturday, as a persistent spike in virus cases showed no signs of subsiding.

One patient died overnight, meaning the virus death toll now stands at 329. The victim was an 88-year-old woman who died at Mater Dei Hospital.

It is the third time that daily case numbers have risen above the 300 mark, with all three of those instances occurring over the past week. The seven-day moving average of new COVID-19 cases in Malta now stands at 285.

The new cases were detected from 3,832 swab tests, resulting in a positivity rate of 9 per cent.

The positivity rate, which measures the share of tests that are positive on any given day, is a key indicator in understanding how widespread infection is within a society or community. Although Malta’s average positivity rate throughout the pandemic has been of 3.36 per cent, it has hovered at levels more than double that over the past weeks.

Meanwhile, 193 virus patients recovered from the virus overnight. As a result, the number of known active virus cases in the country as of 12.30pm on Saturday stood at 3,403 – the highest number of active cases Malta has ever registered since the pandemic began a year ago.

Vaccination

Healthcare workers have administered 92,806 vaccines in total so far, with 31,710 of those being second doses.

The data provided by the Health Ministry means that 2,860 doses were administered on Friday, with 676 of those being second doses.

Should Malta continue vaccinating at that rate, it will be on track to vaccinate 70 per cent of adults by the end of summer, reaching the EU's stipulated target, according to a Times of Malta analysis.