Teachers and school staff to start being vaccinated in 6 weeks

Teachers and school staff will start being vaccinated in six weeks when the current cohort of vaccinations is done, Health Minister Chris Fearne confirmed with The Malta Independent.

During a press conference yesterday, Fearne gave a small update on the Covid-19 situation in Malta.

As of today, 43,000 doses will be given in total, 12,000 of these are second doses of the vaccine.

Upon the arrival of the Astra Zeneca vaccine Fearne confirmed that with every consignment of any vaccine, there will be a temperature probe from the company as well as one from the courier.

Fearne said that there was a small problem with one of the temperature modules from Astra Zeneca’s side in one of the vaccine consignments. This matter is being looked into and if there will be a problem, Astra Zeneca would replace the consignment entirely, Fearne said.

The second vaccine schedule for the Astra Zeneca is also longer than that of Pfizer and Moderna.

While Pfizer and Moderna require 3 and 4 weeks between each dose respectively, the Astra Zeneca vaccine would require 8 to 10 weeks between each dose.

The current cohort of people receiving the vaccine are all those who are considered vulnerable. These will be given the Pfizer vaccine since it has the most studies done with vulnerable people.

This cohort is the third one to receive the vaccine and the process is expected to take 6 weeks. Then at the end of March, the fourth cohort which consists of all the teachers and school staff will be vaccinated.

Fearne also confirmed that a third of the second cohort has been vaccinated.

The Astra Zeneca vaccine will be used for all non-medical front liners by the end of March.

The news comes on the same day as when vaccinations began at the Armed Forces of Malta and at Agenzija Sapport.