The island’s active cases of Covid-19 have climbed to 1,604 — the second highest level recorded since the pandemic hit the island almost two years ago.

There were 689 positive cases from 7,125 tests carried out from last Tuesday to Thursday.

Tuesday’s 204 positive cases were the highest recorded in one day, but the record was broken on Wednesday when 243 positive cases were identified. A further 242 cases were recorded on Thursday.

The positivity rate of 10.5 per cent on Wednesday was also the highest on record. The positivity rate is the percentage of positive cases recorded from the total number of tests taken that day.

There are six people in hospital with Covid-19 but none are in intensive care.

The figures are the highest since the 1,612 logged last September 21, at the peak of the previous surge. At that point there were 54 people in hospital, suggesting the Omicron variant’s sysmptoms are less severe than the Delta variant.

Health officials warned there were still delays with tests because of high demand and limited resources.

There were 1,111 active cases with four people in hospital last Thursday, the last update.

A total of 189 of the new cases came in from overseas.

There were 442 cases under investigation and 58 classed as on-island transmissions.

The seven-day average of Bermuda’s real-time reproduction number is 1.07.

Kim Wilson, the health minister, said the Government was “working quite hard to improve our testing system and processing times”.

She said the Washington Mall site for outbound travellers’ testing, which opened last week, had taken some of the pressure off the Perot Post Office.

Outbound travellers in need of an antigen test 24 hours before flying are being tested at the new location.

Appointments at Washington Mall can be booked through the government website.

The test centre, on the Church Street side walkway above Washington Lane, is open from 10am to 4pm.

Ms Wilson told the public: “Please remember that we need the co-operation of everyone in the community to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

“As basic as it may seem, public health guidance is the best defence against this virus.

“We continue to advocate vigilance, personal responsibility and compliance.

“The public should continue to wear a mask, wash their hands, keep physically distanced from others, not in their household, and add antigen tests to their pandemic toolbox.”