This week is set to be a big one for Malta’s vaccination drive, an already impressive roll-out that has seen the tiny island race past many of its European peers.

Firstly, Health Minister Chris Fearne announced yesterday during May Day celebration talks that, from Tuesday, anyone over the age of 30 will be allowed to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine, making this the latest cohort to be offered the jab at record speed. After all, it’s only been a week since over 40s were invited, and Malta has meanwhile inoculated more than two-thirds of all over 50s and more than 90% of all over 60s with at least one dose, Fearne confirmed.

But most notably for those citizens who are still waiting for their turn, it looks like Malta is about to kick things into overdrive, with the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine – previously touted by Fearne as a game-changer – finally being given out next week. 

When asked by Lovin Malta, a Health Ministry spokesperson confirmed that the J&J jab – which has faced a number of international delays and its own batch of vaccine-related controversy – will start being administered locally “by the end of next week”.

Of course, while this will coincide with the registration for over 30s, it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone in this age group will receive the J&J jab. In fact, the only factor which decides who gets which vaccine (if no other age or health-related risk is present) seems to be whatever is readily available at that point in time.

And with J&J suffering supply shortages worldwide while Malta continues to stock up on other vaccines such as AstraZeneca, trying to predict which vaccine brand you’re going to get is very difficult… and quite frankly meaningless anyway.