Workers in essential settings, such as teachers, will start receiving their invitation to get vaccinated by the end of February or the beginning of March, Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne announced on Tuesday.

These include workers operating in the energy, water, transport and postal sectors as well as those in school settings such as teachers and staff. 

The process to vaccinate these cohorts will take around 6 to 8 weeks to complete, Fearne said.

The Health Minister also expressed his delight with how Malta’s vaccination strategy is going. “The vaccination process is going well, and by Wednesday we will have administered around 55,000 doses and more than 18,000 people will have received the second dose of the vaccines,” he remarked.

Fearne also noted that “we are three weeks ahead of our initial strategy”, which is significant in reaching heard immunity.

Parents who have vulnerable children will also be receiving invitations this week.

“We are also going to be sending invitations to those who will be receiving treatment abroad as well as those who are going with them,” he said.

The Health Minister was also said that he expected to have “increasingly less cases in the coming weeks” due to the vaccination.

During the same press conference, Fearne announced that Malta had found its first case of the South African variant of the virus and that it had over 50 cases of the UK variant.