A pregnant woman due to give birth soon is among seven new coronavirus cases announced overnight.

The 36-year-old Italian woman discovered she had COVID-19 during routine testing because the baby will be delivered by caesarian section.

Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci said she, her unborn baby, and the six other cases are in "good condition".

"We will continue monitoring her, especially during her procedure," Gauci said.

The new cases bring Malta's total to 202 out of 9,043 tests.

Some 749 test were carried out overnight, resulting in seven people testing positive. Four of those contracted the virus in connection with overseas travel while the remaining three patients contracted it locally.

Another of the cases is a man who lives at the Ħal Far open centre for migrants and refugees but the patient was not going out to work because he was previously involved in an accident.

A risk assessment is being carried out and six people sleeping in the same area have been quarantined, Gauci said.

She added that only one of the 202 cases is being treated in the Intensive Treatment Unit. Eight are being treated at the Infectious Diseases Unit at Mater Dei.

The new cases are:

A 55-year-old man who lives in the UK, and returned to Malta on March 19. He experienced symptoms more than 10 days later but had been under quarantine so his case is contained;





A 62-year-old Maltese woman, who was in Australia and returned to Malta on March 20 via the UK. She also experienced symptoms more than ten days later and had also been at home;





A 24-year-old woman who works in the UK and had been on a cruise. She spent two days in the UK, returning to Malta on March 23, when she experienced symptoms. Contact tracing on her fellow plane passengers is being carried out;





A 55-year-old man, related to a 'cluster' of two others, who had returned from the UK on March 24. His symptoms began on March 23 but was also at home;





A 23-year-old woman who was a colleague on the same shift as another person with COVID-19 who works at Lidl in Safi. She experienced symptoms on April 1, a day after working a shift. "All measures are being taken to contain" this case, Gauci said;





A 33-year-old man from Nigeria who came to Malta in October and lives at the Ħal Far open centre;





A 36-year-old pregnant Italian woman, who lives in Malta and contracted the illness locally.

During the question and answer session of the news conference, Gauci suggested Malta is not imminently make mask-wearing mandatory like other countries.

"We are following WHO direction on masks but we are monitoring... the effectiveness of the use of masks outside the healthcare system."