[WATCH] COVID immunity assessment among elderly will determine fate of restrictions, Chris Fearne says

Lifting of COVID-19 restrictions will depend on immunity studies among the elderly and vulnerable who took the vaccine booster dose four months ago, Chris Fearne said.

The Health Minister said the ongoing assessment will determine the level of immunity and whether a fourth booster dose is required.

“It will be a a few more weeks before we have the results of this assessment, which will then lead to a decision on the fourth dose and whether restrictions can be lifted,” Fearne said on TVM News Plus’ Xtra.

He called for more solidarity during this period so as not to put the lives of the elderly and vulnerable at risk.

Booster doses started being rolled out after the summer last year, with elderly people living in care homes and the vulnerable being the first to receive the vaccine. The rollout eventually included elderly people living in the community.

Currently, all people aged 18 and over are eligible for the booster dose with Fearne saying that 72% of adults have received the third dose.

On Monday, new measures came into force that require certain establishments to only accept customers who have a valid COVID vaccine certificate. Vaccine certificates are valid for three months after the second dose and nine months after the booster dose.

Opposition leader Bernard Grech has come out against the vaccine certificate requirement, insisting it impinged on individual freedoms. A similar call was made by a loose grouping of far-rightists, religious extremists and anti-vaxxers, who protested in Valletta on Sunday.

Fearne dismissed the Opposition’s stand, insisting it had no responsibility to shoulder.

“I will not go down the route of the Opposition leader, whose only consideration is whether he can attract votes. My consideration is the health of our citizens and together with my Cabinet colleagues it is our responsibility to run the country unlike the Opposition leader, who has no such duty,” Fearne said.

The minister said that most of the deaths experienced recently occurred in people who were not vaccinated or did not take the booster dose.

Fearne said that so far, 12,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine have been administered to children aged between five and 11.

He said that children were currently exempted from the rules obliging restaurants and other establishments to ask for a vaccine certificate because they are still in the process of receiving their second dose.

When children receive their second dose and 14 days would have lapsed, they will be required to have a valid certificate, Fearne said, depending on the measures in place at the time.