Malta has highest second dose COVID vaccine coverage in EU and fourth globally

Malta has the fourth highest rate of full coronavirus vaccine coverage globally according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

With 4.2% of the Maltese population having received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Malta places behind the Israel, Seychelles and the US. Malta has the highest rate of full vaccine coverage in the EU.

Israel tops the list of countries worldwide with full coverage afforded so far to 34.6% of the population, followed by the Seychelles at 22.3%.

Johns Hopkins has a global tracker for COVID-19 vaccinations. The data used here is from Sunday and does not include the latest information released yesterday by the Maltese health authorities.

As of Monday, Malta administered 66,334 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine of which 21,160 were second doses. The Monday figure for second doses is 629 higher than the data used by Johns Hopkins.

Within the EU, Denmark and Romania coms after Malta with a full coverage of 3%.

The three COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the EU so far – Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca – require people to take two doses a number of weeks apart.

The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve a fourth vaccine produced by Janssen, in mid-March. This vaccine requires only one shot.

On Tuesday, Malta registered 221 new cases of COVID-19 and 191 recoveries. The number of active cases stood at 2,500.

Since the start of the pandemic, 306 people died from COVID-19.