On Friday afternoon, a video published on social media showed elderly people queued outside the Gzira health centre in the rain, awaiting their Covid-19 vaccine.

The people who were waiting outside the health centre fall under the 85+ year old cohort who are being given the vaccine first.

The clip clearly shows long queues of the elderly out in the rain waiting. Some of the elderly in the video are also seen being helped into the queue where they then have to wait in the cold and rain until their name is called.

People are being given appointments with specific times in order to prevent long waiting times, however a large queue still amassed outside the health centre.

There have been reports of people turning up for their appointment early – sometimes a whole two hours early – which may be the root cause of the queues.

In her weekly Covid-19 briefing on Friday, Superintendent Charmaine Gauci urged people to stick to their allocated time slot for the vaccine.

Specific times were assigned precisely to prevent people meeting outside health centres as they go to get vaccinated, she said.