‘Only One In Ten Maltese Healthcare Workers Has Been Vaccinated’: Doctors Call Out ‘Slow’ Vaccine Roll-Out

Malta’s Medical Association (MAM) called out the local health authorities for their ‘very low targets’ for the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, stating that as of yet, only one in ten healthcare workers in Malta have been vaccinated.

The MAM praised Malta’s Health Ministry for its effective vaccine procurement.

“The vast majority of healthcare professionals are feeling let down as to date, only approximately one out of ten has received the first dose of the vaccine, especially when it is public knowledge that the government has in its freezers many more vaccines than front liners, and about 19,000 vaccines remain idle in the freezers,” the MAM said.

“Clearly, with proper organisation, all healthcare professionals may receive both doses in the next four weeks.“

Speaking to Times of Malta yesterday, health authorities confirmed that the number of people vaccinated is expected to increase to 2,000 a week in the coming days and then increase exponentially to 5,000 a week.

If this happens, the MAM said that it would take more than three years to vaccinate all of the Maltese population.

“The Health authorities should also aim to vaccinate the whole population as fast as possible so as to make everybody safe and to kick start economic recovery as soon as possible,” the MAM continued.

“MAM is making its calculations public and invites the health authorities to mobilise its own healthcare workers to get Malta out of this crisis as soon as possible. Vaccination rates should only be limited by outside factors affecting supply and not by local inefficiencies in organisation.”