Malta takes up a drive to provide booster dose to people over 65 years

As the incidence of COVID-19 cases continues to climb, the authorities in charge of public health will be sending out a second invitation to people over the age of 65 in an effort to encourage them to receive the second booster dose.

Chris Fearne, the minister for health, has announced that those individuals who have skipped their appointments will receive an invitation to reschedule them.

His call was made as the number of new cases on Sunday reached 315, which was the highest it had been since the middle of April. If people who have self-tested have not contacted the authorities, the number could be far greater than it is now being reported.

Fearne stated that this highlighted the significance of "achieving high levels of immunity" because the rise in community spread has been attributed to a new sub-variant of Omicron, which was responsible for the increase.

The number of people who have died while testing positive for the virus has, on the other hand, stayed rather constant over the previous week, with an average of one death occurring every two days.

The hospitalization rate has quadrupled, from 2.3 per 100,000 patients to 6.9 per 100,000 patients, according to the weekly analysis by the European Center for Diseases Control and Prevention, which was reported in the Times of Malta the week before last (ECDC).

On Friday, there were 50 patients at the hospital who screened positive for COVID-19. However, only half of those patients are exhibiting any symptoms related to the infection. At any given time, there were three patients receiving treatment at the intensive therapy unit, and their average age was 66.

The figures that were released the previous week revealed that the positivity rate had increased to almost twenty percent, or one in every five tests, despite the fact that just over one thousand tests were being performed each day. The number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 using home kits was not included in those statistics.

At the beginning of this month, COVID-19 with the Omicron XE sub-variant was identified in Malta. It is more infectious than earlier forms of the virus, but it is not believed to be a more dangerous kind.

Early in the month of April, the second booster shot started being given out, with the exception of individuals who were immunocompromised and those who were above the age of 80.

The age requirement was gradually brought down over the course of several years; however, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stated at the time that there did not appear to be a requirement for a second booster shot for individuals under the age of 60 who had healthy immune systems.

 It was asserted that there was no definitive evidence that the vaccine's protective effect against the severe disease was decreasing or that there was an extra value to receiving the fourth dosage.

Beginning in the previous month, persons over the age of 65 have been receiving the benefits of the second booster that has been rolled out.