The number of new patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 at the end of March was the highest since November 2020.
Health sources, however, insist that most patients show no symptoms and only test positive during routine checks while getting treatment for other conditions.
The situation emerges from the latest review of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, covering the week ending March 27.
It shows 20 new COVID-19 patients were admitted to Maltese hospitals for every 100,000 people.
This is the highest rate since November 2020, when the COVID-19 vaccine had not yet started being administered.
The March 27 rate doubled in just a week, the review shows.
How many patients are in hospital?
Malta’s health authorities stopped publishing details about hospital numbers in March, failing to say what prompted this decision.
This despite having insisted for months that the focus in terms of judging the COVID situation should be on hospital admissions and not the number of infections.
Now, the health authorities information is only provided upon request or once a week from the reports published by the ECDC.
The Health Ministry updated Times of Malta on the hospital situation last Thursday, saying there were 143 patients at Mater Dei Hospital with COVID-19.
More than 55 per cent were asymptomatic and admitted to hospital for “other medical reasons”, according to a government spokesperson.
Four patients were being treated at the intensive care unit.
According to the ECDC report, the rate of ITU admissions remained unchanged for a second week at a low 0.2 cases per 100,000 people. The rate is among the lowest in Europe.
Still, sources say the ITU rate is being closely monitored since it takes some weeks until the rise in cases in the community is reflected at the intensive care unit.
The ECDC report also confirmed that the positivity rate – the number of infections found from the total number of tests – peaked at over 20 per cent.
Health sources said last week there was no sign the rate had plateaued yet.
The increase in cases has been blamed on the very infectious BA.2 variant of the Omicron virus.