Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci has welcomed a drop in the number of new coronavirus cases - but warned people to be vigilant as flu season nears. 

In her weekly update, Gauci said that while authorities are seeing a gradual decrease in the number of new and active cases, the numbers were still "substantial". 

She said that as authorities continue to monitor the gradual dip, the change in season could bring other concerns. 

"Now as we creep towards flu season, we will have to work harder as different influenza strains have similar symptoms," she said.

Three people have died of COVID-19 since Gauci last gave an update on Friday.

An 89-year-old man became Malta’s 13th coronavirus victim on Tuesday, while an 86-year old woman and an 85-year-old man died on Saturday and Sunday respectively. 

On Friday, 19 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the community, as well as 27 migrants, who are being kept in quarantine. There are now 406 active cases of COVID-19 in Malta.

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Gauci repeated that 20 per cent of patients are asymptomatic and most are being treated at home. There are six patients in the Infectious Diseases Unit at Mater Dei, while one patient is in intensive care.

Clusters of cases 

She said 31 cases this week been traced to families, 11 cases have been traced to social gatherings and 19 people were traced to the workplace.

"We urge people to refrain from going out and meeting people when feeling unwell while wearing masks and maintaining good hand hygiene if we meet friends and family, she said. 

Of the current active cases, 11 are from Gozo, with the rest from Malta. She said most of the new cases are aged between 15 and 54 with the average age around 39-40. 

"Our strategy of regular testing continues to be strengthened, aiming for 2,500 tests daily." 

She said there were 106 cases in total concerning migrants living in open centers, of which two remain active. All those in closed centres are held in quarantine. 

Change to recovery test

Gauci also confirmed that Malta has changed its requirement for considering a person to be recovered from COVID-19.

Asked if authorities had stopped requiring two negative tests, she said Malta is following international guidelines issued by ECDC, and confirmed that one negative test is enough to consider a patient recovered.

At the beginning of the pandemic, a person was considered to have recovered if two tests were taken 24 hours apart.

Tests on arrivals

Gauci said authorities have carried out 242 tests at the airport on people arriving from countries on the amber list and that four people tested positive since August 22.

"The number of fights from the countries on the amber list and also the number of passengers on these flights is lower than we expected," she said.

On fines, Gauci said environmental health inspectors have carried out 53,782 inspections on homes and issued 167 fines for breaching quarantine. Some 36 establishments have been fined for flouting rules while  113  people have been fines for failing to wear masks.

"We are seeing some people who are wearing a mask and then remove it while speaking. As you can see, you can speak with the mask on. The risk of spreading the virus grows when you speak so you need to keep it on," she said.

However, the number could be higher, because Gauci did not have any information for fines handed out by the Malta Tourism Authority, the police, or Transport Malta. 

She also criticized the abuse that some frontliners have experienced when dealing with COVID-19 patients. 

"We carry out assessments based on scientific evidence," she said. "There were people who didn't understand us and did not behave appropriately with our people. Help us carry out our work properly."

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