Over 30s can apply for Covid-19 vaccine from Tuesday

• 12 new Covid-19 cases found as cases continue decline

People over the age of 30 will be able to register for the Covid-19 vaccine as from Tuesday, Health Minister Chris Fearne announced as the number of Covid-19 cases has continued to decline.

The announcement comes barely a week after the jab rollout was extended to include those over 40 years of age. 42% of this cohort have already received their first dose of the vaccine.

Fearne said that those over 30 will be able to register either online or via SMS, like how those over 40 and over 50 have been registering in previous weeks.

Two thirds of those over 50 have also received their first dose of the vaccine so far, as Malta continues to speed through its vaccination programme.

Malta is leading the EU in its vaccination rate, and has also now overtaken the United Kingdom which started vaccinating a month before Malta did.

339,727 doses of the vaccine had been administered up until Saturday – while the total number of people who have received both doses of the vaccine now stands at 108,216.

Meanwhile, the low number of cases being found persisted, with just 12 new Covid-19 cases being reported by health authorities on Sunday, although one more patient was announced to have passed away in relation to the virus.

An 87-year-old man passed away at St. Thomas Hospital while Covid-19 positive, authorities said, becoming the 416th person to die while positive for the virus in Malta.

20 people meanwhile have recovered from the virus, meaning that the number of active cases has decreased to 261.

2,036 swab tests were carried out on Saturday, taking that total number of tests so far up to 871,099.

Over half the country’s adult population has now received at least one dose of the vaccine, and herd immunity is estimated to be achieved by the end of June – just under two months away.

Malta is currently administering three different vaccine approved by European authorities: the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine, and the Modern vaccine.

A fourth vaccine – the singledose Johnson & Johnson vaccine – will start to be rolled out from this coming week.

Fearne also announced on Saturday that Malta will be making vaccination certificates available by the end of May.

These will only show whether a person has been vaccinated against Covid-19, and a legal notice published on Friday indicates that it can only be used for travel purposes and will remain valid for six months.

The certificate will be issued by health authorities 14 days after a person takes the second dose of the vaccine.

Maltese residents on possession of the vaccination certificate will be allowed to travel to red zone countries – travel which is currently banned save for when special permission is granted by health authorities.

Malta has had 30,319 cases of the virus. 29,642 of those have recovered, while 416 have died.