The cases of people in Malta who tested positive for coronavirus rose to 12 with 3 new cases confirmed this morning.
The first case is of a 45-year-old Maltese who on 11 March began to feel symptoms of coughing and breathing problems. He returned to Malta from Munichfive days earlier. The medical condition is good and the man is being kept in the Infectious Diseases Unit at Mater Dei hospital. The man’s family consists of 3 persons and so far they do not seem to have developed symptoms of COVID 19, but they are kept in quarantine.
The second positive case for coronavirus is that ofan Italiancitizen,40 years old, who lives and works in Malta. He traveled to Paris on February 29 and returned to Malta on March 6. After four days he started feeling the first symptoms of the virus.
The third case is of a Maltese woman, a health worker.Shetraveled from Malta to Brussels on March 5 and returned to work five days later. She started feeling symptoms the next day when he was already in contact with other people including hercolleges.
The Maltese health authorities have said that they are identifying the people who have come into contact with the infected people so that they will be putin quarantine.
Meanwhile the Superintendent of Public Health in Malta declared that the authorities are expecting more cases of coronavirus and eventually they are also expecting local transmission of the virus. Dr Charmaine Gauci also warned that police with the help of health officials will start checking those who are supposed to be under quarantine.
Meanwhile, doctors are putting more pressure on the Maltese government to declare a complete shutdown throughout the country to avoid local transmission of the coronavirus.
A few hours after the Maltese government has decided to close all schools and all access to the day care centres for the elderly, and no mass will be celebrated in the local churches, the Maltese people have woken up more worried because of the coronavirus that is seriously affecting several European countries.
Away from daily activity, the capital of Malta, Valletta today woke up with a rather surreal scene as the main streets were almost deserted. There were few people almost inevitably seemed to go to work and the main squares were completely silent.
Tonight a considerable number of restaurant and shop owners in Valletta have decided not to open even if the business is not good at this time. This was decided to prevent the number of people in one place at the same time, and therefore protect the health of the workers and consumers.
This situation has evolved even though the Maltese government has decided not to close off the country.
In the meantime, people are urged not to use the ferry service between Malta and Gozo if it is not so urgent, as a precautionary measure against the spread of coronavirus.
