The unions representing doctors and nurses said on Saturday they had suspended industrial action they planned to take in protest over the holding of mass events and the consequent spread of COVID-19.

The decision was taken after meetings with Health Minister Chris Fearne.

The Medical Association of Malta (MAM) which represents the doctors, said agreement in principle had been reached on a draft text on how to address pending issues, particularly the problems related to the dangers of mass events, and how to tackle the new surge in cases so as to avoid unnecessary risks to medical professionals and the public.

"This agreement builds on past successes but takes in consideration lessons learnt in the past two weeks," the union said.

The union said it was confident that there is a good basis for agreement but it would decide on Tuesday whether to launch action from Wednesday.

The nurses' union also said that an agreement in principle had been reached with Fearne and directives were being suspended till Wednesday.

A meeting will be taking place early next week to finalise the agreement.

Twenty-one new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Malta on Saturday.

The majority of the cases were related to contacts of previously reported positive cases. There were no recoveries and the number of active cases stands at 171.