The situation in Malta’s hospitals does not feature in COVID-19 reports by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control because the data provided by the local authorities is not “good quality”.

The ECDC, an EU agency, publishes daily and weekly reports on the pandemic across Europe and other countries. While reviewing the latest report, Times of Malta discovered there is no data for hospital and intensive care unit admissions for Malta.

In recent weeks, the health authorities have supplied weekly updates on people in hospitals, especially as the number of those in critical care soared.

But contacted about the issue, a spokesperson for the ECDC said the agency “currently does not have recent good quality data on hospital and ICU admissions reported officially from Malta”.

This was why the country’s hospital situation did not feature in the latest report, the spokesperson said.

“However, we are in active discussions with our colleagues in Malta to find a solution and hope to have good quality data reported to ECDC in the coming weeks,” the agency said.

A government spokesperson assured Times of Malta that the authorities were providing all the necessary data to the ECDC.

However, no reference was made to the ongoing talks.

On Friday, Superintendent of Public Heath Charmaine Gauci revealed that 208 people were being treated in hospital for coronavirus. That included 13 in the ICU and 10 at Mater Dei Hospital infectious disease unit.

Of the other patients, 36 are in other wards in Mater Dei, 42 in Boffa Hospital, 24 are in St Thomas Hospital, 11 are in Gozo General Hospital and 69 elderly patients are being treated in the Good Samaritan unit in St Paul’s Bay.