Elderly residents at the Fgura San Ġużepp home, who tested negative to COVID-19, are being moved to two separate residences. 

This was being done for their own protection, the health authorities told Times of Malta on Friday.

The old people's home has become the current focus of COVID-19 in Malta and on Wednesday a spokesperson said that 113 of its 278 residents had tested positive for the virus.

It had initially separated residents according to their test results, following the advice of seven doctors, four of whom are consultants.

Among those who tested positive are the relatives of Mario Mifsud, who has filed a police report over negligence at the home.

He and others claim it is understaffed – with 29 workers infected and 50 in quarantine.

Several other elderly people, residing in other homes, have over the past weeks tested positive for the virus, after Malta's positive cases spiked in August.

A quarter of the 29 deaths linked to the pandemic were among residents in homes for the elderly, Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci revealed on Friday.

“This is something we wanted to avoid. We managed to control the situation among the elderly in the first wave but this time around we had cases in homes," she said.