Not Every COVID-19 Patient At Mater Dei Is There Because Of Virus, Charmaine Gauci Confirms

Not all of the COVID-19 patients at Mater Dei have been hospitalised because of the virus, Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci has confirmed.
Interviewed on TVAM this morning, Gauci said that Malta’s high level of COVID-19 community transmission means it is inevitable that some people will test positive for the virus when they’re admitted to hospital for a totally different condition.
“If someone goes to hospital for, say, chest pains and is tested before admission, the chances that he’ll test positive are there,” she said.
Gauci said the testing procedure is necessary to ensure that people who test positive for COVID-19 are treated at an isolated part of Mater Dei, therefore preventing the virus from spreading.
“If they go to hospital for chest pains but it turns out they’re also positive for COVID-19, they will be kept at hospital because of their chest pains and not because of COVID-19.”
“However, the fact that they have the virus means they could infect others, which is why they’re kept in separate, isolated wards.”
As it stands, 122 people who have tested positive for the virus are receiving treatment at Mater Dei, seven of whom are receiving intensive care.
The national health bulletin doesn’t specify how many of these patients are hospitalised for the virus and how many are there for another primary condition.
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