Senior citizens receiving their first COVID-19 vaccination in Gżira on Saturday reported an orderly process without the queues or disorganisation which plagued some health centres on Friday.

Healthcare workers are vaccinating people aged 85 and over who still live in their homes, and have received a letter which included an appointment for both the first and second dose of the vaccine. 

Senior citizens waiting outside the Gżira health centre on Saturday morning to receive their vaccination spoke positively about their experience.  

“The whole process was very well organised and I feel good,” Lewis, who just turned 86 this week, said just moments after taking the jab.

Lewis had arrived a bit earlier than scheduled as he was worried that he would find large queues of people waiting, but on the contrary, the whole process ran smoothly. 

“I am used to taking injections and I believe it is important that everyone takes the vaccine so that we can build a herd immunity in the community,” he said.

Others also spoke positively. 

“My mother was called in right on time for her appointment, and now we will wait 15 minutes, as health carers have advised her to wait after the jab just in case of any reactions,” one woman who declined to provide her name told Times of Malta. 

85-year-old Pauline Tabone said that she had been prepared to take the vaccine.

"Apart from it feeling a bit numb, I feel good and I wanted to take it, like all the other vaccines I have taken before," she said.  

Some relatives and seniors said they were not pleased to see that the clinic was still open for people who are sick or need to see a doctor.

“My parents have been kept inside for over a year, and whilst it is efficient and fast, I don’t think it is safe for them to be waiting in a clinic with other sick people,” said one woman who was accompanying her elderly father. 

Calm after Friday's storm

The calm situation at the Gżira clinic stood in contrast to the situation just one day prior. 

When Times of Malta visited the clinic on Friday, elderly people in line for a vaccine were waiting outside in the cold weather, with appointments delayed and nowhere to sit. The situation on Friday was also chaotic at Floriana health centre, with witnesses reporting rowdy behaviour by patients frustrated by long waits. 

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses reacted to reports about the disorganised rollout by threatening to file an industrial dispute unless security was beefed up and logistical problems resolved by the government's primary health care department. 

Situation outside of the Gzira health care center better than on Friday Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The MUMN has been critical of the government's vaccine strategy, saying rollout is moving too slowly. Health Minister Chris Fearne has responded to that criticism by saying healthcare workers are administering doses as quickly as they arrive in Malta. 

Data comparing various countries' COVID-19 vaccine rollouts indicates that Malta is currently vaccinating people at the second-fastest rate in the EU, although other non-EU countries such as Israel and the UK are moving ahead faster.