New testing guidelines, lack of social distancing and a more virulent virus strain may all be behind Malta’s stubbornly high number of daily COVID-19 cases, Health Minister Chris Fearne has said.

Malta has registered more than 100 new virus cases every day for 19 consecutive days, with Wednesday’s case tally of 226 cases being the third-highest number of virus cases recorded in a single day since the start of the pandemic.

Asked on Wednesday to explain the persistently high number of cases, Fearne offered three different reasons – one related to data collection, another to social behaviour and a third concerning the virus itself.

1. Changes to rapid test rules

The first reason for the spike in cases, he said, was that people who test positive using a rapid test kit are now automatically considered to be COVID-19 positive.

Previously, a positive rapid test result had to be followed up with a positive PCR test result before a patient was classified as COVID-19 positive.

That requirement changed earlier this month. Now, a person with virus symptoms or who has been in contact with a positive case is automatically classified as COVID-19 positive if they test positive using a rapid test kit.

Fearne said that some 15 per cent of cases recorded in the past week were of people who tested positive in such situations. Using that 15 per cent figure, around 192 of the 1,286 new virus cases registered in the seven days to Wednesday are attributable to rapid tests.

2. People are breaking social distancing

The second reason for the persistently high case numbers was behavioural in nature, Fearne said.

The minister said that authorities were finding many clusters of cases related to family or social gatherings, indicating that respect for social distancing measures was declining over time.

Health Minister Chris Fearne. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Gatherings of six people or more in public were still prohibited, he cautioned.

3. A UK virus variant is spreading

The third reason for persistently high case numbers was that the UK variant of the virus, known as B.1.1.7, was spreading, the minister said.

Eight per cent of all new positive cases in the past week were of that variant, which studies have indicated spreads more easily and quickly than others.

Health authorities across Europe are running gene sequencing tests on samples of the virus taken from positive patients, to work out how broadly variants are spreading.

Fearne said that Malta is currently testing more than double the recommended proportion of positive cases for virus variants.

"The EU recommends that this is carried out on 5 per cent of positive cases, we are carrying it out on 12 to 13 per cent."