The island has set a new daily record for positive cases of the coronavirus, with 116 cases found out of 1,634 tests.

The latest result yields a 7.1 per cent positivity rate for the virus.

The surge means there have been 370 new cases in just five days, and there are now 871 people with the coronavirus on the island, which is 49.1 per cent of all recorded cases since the pandemic began last March.

Twenty-eight people are in hospital for the illness, up two from the last update, and there are still six people in intensive care.

There are 20 new cases classed as local transmission with known contacts, and 91 cases under investigation – in residents with no known links to other sources and no recent travel history.

Five of the new cases are from overseas, with two residents arriving from Atlanta last Saturday testing positive on day four.

Three residents who came back from Boston, New York and London on March 30 were all found to be infected on their day 8 tests.

There have been 24 recoveries since the last update.

The latest update brings the island’s active cases to 871, with 843 under public health monitoring.

Kim Wilson, the health minister, warned there were “voice notes and messages circulating in the community which are causing alarm for people”.

She added: “I will state again, if you have questions about getting the Covid-19 vaccine, talk to your doctor.

“Go to reliable sources for information, coronavirus.gov.bm, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, the World Health Organisation or Public Health England are a few of the sites that provide current, accurate information.

“We must continue to work together to stop the spread of the coronavirus and protect our most vulnerable citizens.”

Ms Wilson called on anyone feeling unwell to stay at home, consult their doctor, and get an appointment for a test.

With the island at Phase 3 of its vaccination programme, she urged anyone not registered to sign up for the jab – and to wear a proper mask covering when attending the vaccination centre.

In a series of tweets, Premier David Burt said that the “number of new cases is alarming & has been caused by:

1) Continued mixing of households contrary to advice.

2) High spread in workplaces (b4 remote working) where people were not wearing masks spreading infections (cause for today’s high number from Wed's testing).“

Twitter

This Sunday, the Covid-19 Call Centre phone lines close early at 3pm for an upgrade.

Anyone with inquiries should e-mail coronavirus@gov.bm.

For help with travel authorisations, e-mail taapprovals@gov.bm.

Phone lines are back to normal at 9am on Monday.

Bermuda’s total cases for the pandemic now stand at 1,773, with 888 people recovered and a death toll of 14.

The mean age of confirmed positive cases is 41, with ages ranging from infant to more than 100.

The mean age of active cases if also 41, ranging from under age 10 to 80-100.

The mean age of hospital patients is 66, ranging from below 30 to 80-100.

Out of our total cases, 260 are imported and 1,062 are from local transmission.

Of local cases, 968 have known contacts, 94 have unknown contacts, and 451 are under investigation.

The seven-day average of our real time reproduction number is 1.05.

Bermuda’s current World Health Organisation status remains at community transmission.