Malta will be receiving up to 10,000 doses of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine by this Saturday after the European medicines authority approved the use of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by U.S. company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, putting Europe on course to start inoculations within a week.
This was announced in a press conference this afternoon by Health Minister Chris Fearne. A second batch is expected to arrive on the 28th, taking the tally of shots available to half a million. Moderna vaccines are expected by January.
Chris Fearne said that a Maltese nurse who works in Mater Dei’s infectious diseases unit will be the first person to receive the vaccine this Sunday. The first persons to receive the jab will be staff at the intensive care units, emergency and COVID-19 wards. At the turn of the new year, persons aged over 85 will be invited to take the vaccine.
Fearne added that while taking the vaccine is not mandatory, it is recommended to inform authorities of the intention of doing so, in order to ensure that another person is immediately called up from the list.
Preparations for the vaccine rollout come as the identification of a highly infectious new strain of the coronavirus in Britain caused chaos across the region, with countries shutting off travel ties with the UK and disrupting trade ahead of the Christmas holiday.
