Two thirds of Malta's adult population has received COVID-19 vaccine booster dose

Coronavirus vaccine booster doses have been administered to two-thirds of Malta's adult population, Health Minister Chris Fearne said.

The latest data from Malta's vaccination programme shows that 67% of adults aged 18 and over have received a third COVID-19 vaccine shot since the booster programme was launched last September.

So far the booster dose has been offered to all people aged 18 and over with Fearne telling MaltaToday that Malta will wait for the European Medicines Agency's go-ahead to offer the third dose to those aged between 12 and 17.

"Booster doses for under-18s have not been approved yet by EMA but they are looking into it," Fearne said.

However, some countries, including Italy have started offering the booster jab to under-18s.

Last month, Malta started offering the COVID inoculation to children between 5 and 11 after EMA approved the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for use in children.

According to data sourced from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), until last week, Malta had the second-highest booster dose rate in Europe with 54.2% of its population inoculated. Hungary had the highest booster dose rate with 55%. 

The ECDC data shows that 69% of persons living in the European Union have received at least two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Data released by the health authorities today shows Malta has administered 288,561 booster doses.

People aged 18 and over who wish to register for the booster dose can do so at vaccin.gov.mt.