Malta will be opening its COVID-19 vaccination programme for vaccines for those aged over 30, as the island’s vaccination reaches more universal coverage, Maltatoday and Times of Malta report.
According to Maltatoday, vaccination certificates will be available from end of May.
Maltese residents with vaccination passports will also be allowed to travel to red countries, while at the moment travel to these countries is banned except by permission of the Superintendent for Public Health. A vaccination certificate shall only be valid for a period of six months. A digital ‘trust framework’ will be used between countries for the issuance and verification of vaccine certificates, providing for the interoperability, integrity and authenticity of such certificates.
The Times reports Malta has also published a legal notice regulating vaccine certificates, paving the way for the country to introduce the COVID-19 document irrespective of EU plans to do likewise. The legal notice was published on Friday and indicates that Malta’s vaccination certificates will only be used for travel purposes.
The Times reports that people over 30 will be able to sign up for the COVID-19 vaccine from Tuesday, Health Minister Chris Fearne has announced, as healthcare professionals continue to speed through the roll-out of the jab. Speaking during Workers’ Day festivities, the minister said that those who are over 30 will be able to register online or via SMS, a process introduced some weeks ago when those over 50s started being offered the jab. The announcement for the over 30s comes just over a week after those in their 40s became eligible for the vaccine. In the week since that aged group was called in, healthcare workers administered doses to over 42 per cent of the cohort. As of Thursday, more than two out of every three people in their 50s had received at least one vaccine shot, with 94 per cent of over 60s also vaccinated with at least one dose.
