There are 107 cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Malta after the  Superintendent for Public Health Charmaine Gauci confirmed that there were 17 new patients.

Seven of the new cases were locally transmitted. Contact tracing continues.

A 40-year-old man, a 32-year old healthcare worker, a 34-year-old man, a 52-year-old-woman and three of her relatives, did not come into contact with anyone who recently went abroad.

The other ten cases had recently travelled to countries like Italy, the UK, Ireland, among others.

Gauci played down concerns over the increase, telling the press that this was the number of new patients health authorities expected.

So far, 3,099 tests have been carried out. Gauci said the number of tests meant that the authorities were finding new cases regularly.

Two have officially recovered while around 60 are isolating at home. The rest of the patients are receiving treatment at Mater Dei and St Thomas Hospital. They are being treated through pain relief medication like paracetamol

No deaths due to the coronavirus have been confirmed in Malta yet. The one man in ITU is stable.

Doctors are continuously monitoring the situation of the patients who are isolating at home and will test them for the virus again two weeks after they discharged from hospital.  

This is a developing story.