[WATCH] Early booster dose distribution has proven crucial against COVID-19 – Chris Fearne

Malta will receive its first consignment of the children’s COVID-19 vaccine in the coming days, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Tuesday.

During a Council of Ministers meeting at EU level, Fearne emphasised the need for people to take the booster dose so that Europe can overcome the current phase of the pandemic.

“The decision to start administering the COVID-19 vaccine booster early seems to have been a wise decision. Today, other European countries are doing the same.”

Fearne expressed concern on the Omicron variant, a new COVID-19 strain that could evade immunity provided by current vaccines.

He said that sequencing tests are being carried out in Malta on all positive cases to better understand the variants present in the community.

Here, Fearne reaffirmed the importance of European countries purchasing vaccines together so that everyone has direct and prompt access to the vaccine.

In this regard, all countries will be receiving consignment of the COVID-19 vaccine for children in the coming days, allowing the vaccine to be offered to all children over 5 by end of January.

He remarked that the EU has donated more than 350 million vaccines to external countries, with Malta delivering one of the largest amounts of vaccines per capita.

Recently, the Maltese government donated 131,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Iran  with the assistance of the European Commission.

A special flight was coordinated by the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and landed in Tehran it the vaccines. They were received by a team of officials from Iran’s Ministry for Health and Medical Education.