Health authorities will have a better idea of whether new, more contagious variants of COVID-19 are spreading across Malta by the end of this week.
The UK and South Africa have recently detected variants of COVID-19, both of which have been found to be more contagious, spreading much quicker and resulting in greater spikes in numbers.
So far in Malta, three cases of the UK variant have been detected. But this could all change in the coming days as further results from gene sequencing tests are expected by the end of the week, virologist Chris Barbara told Times of Malta.
The tests will provide authorities with data about which virus variants have been detected locally, and how many cases of each have been found.
Barbara, who heads Mater Dei Hospital’s pathology department, overseeing the bulk of COVID-19 testing, said testing takes at least a week because there are at least two new variants – the one detected in the UK and that in South Africa.
“Our labs are carrying out whole genome sequencing tests because we cannot target just one variant as we know there are more, so the process takes longer,” he said.
Any positive tests linked to travel from the UK are checked for the...
