An unvaccinated 19-year old is being treated in Mater Dei hospital for Covid-19, Health Minister Chris Fearne remarked.

The Minister remarked that the patient is a student who is learning English in Malta and that he was not vaccinated. He is also not in ITU, but recovering at the Infectious Disease Unit.

Another two foreigners are also recovering in hospital with Covid-19, both unvaccinated.

Fearne said that people who did not take the vaccine will have the same Covid-19 symptoms if they have the virus. On the other hand, those who are vaccinated have “little to no symptoms,” Fearne said.

The Health Minister said that they are finding positive cases in those persons who were going to travel to countries where the EU vaccine certificate is not accepted and would need to take a swab test. “These would feel nothing, go and take the test, and turn out to be positive. We still consider these as positive even though they do not have symptoms,” Fearne remarked.

We know that numbers around the whole world are increasing due to the Delta variant, including Malta. He remarked that one study shows that until mid-August, it is expected that 90% of all cases will be from the Delta variant.

The minister remarked that the health authorities expect cases within the community to increase, but “the most important thing that we need to stay aware of is not how many cases there are within the community, but how many are in hospital,” he said.

Fearne noted that evidence from across the world, including Malta, shows that “only a few who are positive for the virus and have had two doses of the vaccine end up in hospital.”

This is quite significant, Fearne remarked, as he said that the Government have said it from the very start that they do not want “a tsunami” which would render the hospitals unable to work normally.

“Up till now, it seems that we are preventing having a good number of people which are admitted in hospital when they are vaccinated,” he said.