People have had their vaccination appointments delayed by a few days, as Malta’s vaccination drive slowed somewhat in the past couple of days.

Readers who spoke to The Malta Independent said that they had their appointment for their second dose of the vaccine delayed, with one person who was scheduled to receive their second Pfizer dose on Sunday told at Mater Dei Hospital to call back on Wednesday.

The person was told to call the vaccine helpline – 145 – on Wednesday before returning after being told by a nurse at the hospital that a batch of vaccines had not arrived in Malta, leaving a shortage of Pfizer vaccines for those with appointments in these current days.

Another reader told this newsroom of how their vaccine appointment had been pushed back by a week, from tomorrow to the 8^th of June.

Questions sent to the Health Ministry asking whether there had been a delay in batches of Pfizer vaccines in the past week were not answered by the time of writing.

The Health Ministry’s daily Covid-19 figures however do indicate something of a slow-down – at least in comparison to the usually very high numbers of daily inoculations – in recent days.

While over 7,000 vaccine doses are generally administered every day, only 4,212 doses of the vaccine were administered between Thursday and Friday, and only 2,902 doses were administered between Friday and Saturday.

Malta usually takes delivery of batches of the Pfizer vaccine every week, though it wouldn’t be the first time that a shipment was delayed by a few days.

Meanwhile, authorities reported four new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, with three new recoveries.  No new deaths were recorded, meaning that the number of active cases currently stands at 68.

512,214 doses of the vaccine had been administered up until Saturday, with 316,224 of those being a first dose. 205,221 people are now fully vaccinated.

Malta has had 30,533 cases of the virus so far. 30,046 of those have recovered, while 419 have died.