Ten new coronavirus cases were reported overnight, including, for the first time, two patients aged over 70, the Superintendent for Public Health Charmaine Gauci, said on Wednesday.

The elderly are the most vulnerable to coronavirus, but the patients, aged 70 and 73, are doing well.  

Malta had 38 confirmed coronavirus cases up to Tuesday. The first case was reported on March 7.

Of the new cases, Gauci said two are women - 26 and 27-year-olds who went to Germany and Poland. They came through Berlin on March 11. They started showing symptoms on March 9 and immediately went under quarantine. As they had the symptoms while onboard the Berlin-Malta flight contact tracing is underway.

Another couple, Italians, both 43, who live in Malta were also confirmed cases.
They were not abroad but were in contact with someone who went abroad. The woman started showing symptoms on March 12  and the man the next day.

Another case is a woman, 48 who was in London and started showing symptoms on March 17. She was under quarantine and now so is her family.

Another two cases were related to the case reported on Tuesday about the woman admitted to hospital with a fracture. The authorities found that one man, 57, who was in a different ward tested positive.

The other patient who was in that ward is a 73-year-old man who also tested positive for coronavirus.

The authorities have now tested all the other patients in that ward and the results came back negative. The ward was closed and the staff and patients are now under quarantine.

"We also continue testing patients," Gauci said. 

Another case is a Maltese man, 37. He showed symptoms on March 9 after having been in contact with a foreigner who had travelled to the UK. Contact tracing with his colleagues is continuing. 

A 26-year-old woman is another case. She is part of a cluster of a total of four patients first reported a few days ago.

Gauci said testing is being widened. 

Some of the patients are being kept at Mater Dei Hospital while less serious cases are kept at other healthcare facilities or in isolation at home, thus keeping beds free at Mater Dei for the more serious cases. Those kept at home are closely watched by designated doctors.  

Two patients have recovered so far and the remaining are doing well. 

The first cases of community spread were reported on Monday. Most were traced down to a health worker who had been abroad, but the authorities on Tuesday were not sure about the source of infection for a 54-year-old man, suspecting that he may have got the virus from a gym.