Charmaine Gauci has defended the health authorities' COVID-19 measures saying it is important that restrictions are lifted slowly even though Malta has the lowest infection and death rates in the EU.

Her weekly briefing came after the head of the Valletta Cultural Agency questioned a decision to ban mass events, saying he had been informed they would not be allowed until at least September. 

On Friday, Malta recorded six new cases of COVID-19 and ten recoveries, bringing the overall number of active cases on the island to just 96.

"We continue to see a decrease in cases, and are now at a plateau," Gauci said, revealing that the seven-day moving average now stands at three cases. 

Watch the briefing live below

Gauci began her briefing with an update on vaccine roll out, revealing 164,113 people have been fully vaccinated while 296,548 have received one dose.

She also broke down the vaccine uptake in each of the age groups, with the following receiving at least the first dose.

• 60+     - 95%
• 50-59   - 75%
• 40-49   - 69%
• 30-39   - 55% 
• 16-29   - 24%  

The percentage for the last two age groups includes people who have registered for the vaccine, but may not yet have received their appointment. 

Just 12 people are being treated for COVID-19 in hospital: four in Mater Dei's intensive treatment unit; four in its infectious diseases unit; two in Gozo General Hospital and two at the Paul Boffa hospital. 

For the third week, there are no cases at all in homes for the elderly. 

How is COVID-19 being spread?

While the overall numbers are small, the majority of new infections are imported. Of the 13 new infections this week, 10 were imported while three were from households. There was one primary school child among the cases.

However, Gauci said that of the 1,928 tests carried out at the airport, there were no positive results. She has previously said that incubation period of the virus means that symptoms can develop later. 

The average age of a COVID-19 patient has dropped to 32 and there are no patients over the age of 45, Gauci said. 

The majority of the 96 active cases are in Malta, with five in Gozo. 

"There has been a huge impact with the vaccination programme," Gauci said. "The fact that there are no deaths this week shows how the vaccine is protecting people, and there has also been a huge impact on hospital administrations."

What about variants of concern? 

There remain no cases of the Indian variant, that has been linked to a recent surge of infections in the UK.

The majority of Malta's cases are of the UK variant, responsible for 48% of infections, while there are 27 cases of the Brazil variant.

Asked what authorities are doing to limit the chances of the India variant arriving in Malta, Gauci said there are effective protocols at the airport and seaport and "strict contact tracing" controls the situation.

Authorities are monitoring the situation in the UK, she said. Asked if it could be put on the red list, she said: "We are aware that there are places were the variant is spreading and that if there is need to change something we will do so."

When will mass events be allowed?

Gauci's weekly briefing came days before Malta is due to relax its COVID-19 measures further on Monday with gyms and pools to reopen and restaurants allowed to serve customers until midnight.

However she stood firm in the health authorities' decision not to allow mass events and would not give a date for when they could be held. 

"We made it very clear that when we studied the situation, mass events are the highest risk," she said."We have made it very clear that now is not the time to have mass events."

"We announce dates every 2 weeks, and we work on things step by step, we have announced the dates we can give," she said. "We must remember that the pandemic can affect many things and we are constantly evaluating the situation." 

She also said that masks remain "necessary" for now and repeated that the authorities were lifting restrictions in a slow, measured way to ensure that the situation is controlled.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that 33 cases, rather than 10 were imported this week.