Malta will start vaccinating residents of old people’s homes against COVID-19 next Monday, Health Minister Chris Fearne has announced.

Interviewed on TVAM this morning, Fearne confirmed that the vaccine will be delivered to the homes, meaning residents will not have to leave the building to get inoculated. 

Starting from Monday, the health authorities will also start sending formal invitations to healthcare workers in the private sector and people older than 85 with details of their impending vaccination date. 

“People won’t get this letter at the same time but it will start on Monday,” he said. 

Fearne reminded people that a new helpline, 145, has been set up to assist people with queries on the vaccination process.

Malta received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines last weekend and started inoculating people on Sunday.

The first cohort of people to get vaccinated includes healthcare workers, elderly care home staff and residents, mental care home staff and residents and everyone over 85 will receive it in the near future. 

The second cohort will include everyone over 80 and all other front-liners, the third will include everyone suffering from chronic illnesses, everyone over 70 and school and childcare centre workers, the fourth everyone over 55 and the fifth the general public.

Malta is currently inoculating people with a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, but could soon also start distributing doses of vaccine produced by Moderna and AstraZeneca if they are approved by the European Medicines Agency.

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