(Reuters) Sixty-five migrants who were in a group of 94 people rescued at sea and taken to Malta on Monday have tested positive for COVID-19, Malta’s health ministry said on Tuesday.
It was the single largest cluster of positive cases detected on the Mediterranean island since the first case came to light there on March 7.
The health ministry said 85 of the migrants had been tested so far, with nine awaiting an examination. It gave no further information about their condition. The nationalities of those infected were not given, but their dinghy was believed to have set sail from Libya.
“Migrants arriving by boat are immediately quarantined for 14 days and tested. The migrants who are positive will continue to be isolated and the rest will remain in quarantine and followed up,” the ministry said.
