Malta ‘days away’ from fully vaccinating 70% of adults – Chris Fearne

Malta is fast approaching its latest major milestone in its fight against COVID, the full vaccinating of 70 per cent of its adult population, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health Chris Fearne.

Speaking during the opening of a health centre in Marsaxlokk, the Minister discussed the COVID situation in Malta, saying that children would start receiving their vaccination invites at home as from Monday.

The Minister also revealed that for the third time in five days, the country will register no new COVID cases on Thursday. Additionally, for the first time since March 2020, there are no COVID patients in hospital.

There are now 33 active cases in Malta, according to Mr Fearne.

However, it was also revealed that an 82-year-old man has died while positive for the virus, despite having been vaccinated and having recovered from the virus on an earlier occasion.

Clinical trials for the vaccines approved for his age group in Malta show a major, but not a total reduction in symptomatic cases amongst those vaccinated.

According to the European Medicines Agency, the Pfizer vaccine has shown a 95 per cent efficacy in clinical trials, whereas the Moderna version producing a 94.1 per cent reduction in the number of symptomatic COVID cases.