Bars and band clubs will remain shut throughout March but some care homes will see measures relaxed due to the success of the vaccine, Chris Fearne has announced.

The health minister said that despite Malta "doing well" with its vaccine roll out, it was important to continue to follow social distancing guidelines.

He said he had therefore decided to extend the closure of bars and band clubs until the end of March - meaning they will be shuttered for at least five months. 

However, restaurants that had a curfew of 11pm in February, will have their opening hours extended to midnight.

In a news conference, Fearne also revealed that the AstraZeneca vaccine, which had been restricted to the under-55s, would now also be administered to those aged between 55 and 65, after advice from a scientific committee.

Perspex shields

From next week, those aged between 75 and 80 will start receiving a vaccine invitation for appointments from March 8, as per the schedule. 

And he said that since nobody who has received the second dose of the vaccine has been admitted to hospital, there will be some relaxation of measures at homes for the elderly. 

For months, relatives and residents have been separated by a perspex shield, with some care homes also banning visitors altogether.

Perspex shields will now gradually start being removed. 

"Those homes where 90 per cent of the residents had the second dose will see the shields go down," he said.

This preventative measure will be lifted 10 days after a home's last resident has received their second vaccine dose, to ensure residents have built up significant immunity to the virus. 

Increased numbers

Fearne told a news conference that there were several reasons for the recent high numbers of daily COVID-19 cases. 

Firstly, he said that this was partly due to the inclusion of results from rapid tests in the daily updates. Previously, these were not included unless they were backed up by a 'gold-standard' PCR test. 

Some 15 per cent of cases in the last week were rapid test results, he said. 

Secondly, more people were relaxing their respect for social distancing measures. He said several clusters linked to family or social gatherings were being discovered and reminded people that gatherings of more than six people in public were still prohibited. 

And thirdly, there are cases of the UK variant, which he said amount to eight per cent of all new positive cases in Malta in the last week. 

"We are carrying out gene sequencing at a high rate," he said. "The EU recommends that this is carried out on 5 per cent of positive cases, we are carrying it out on 12 to 13 per cent."

Asked whether Malta is considering a vaccine passport, he said that once Malta has enough empirical and scientific data about the long term efficacy of vaccinations, it will start issuing vaccine certificates which are meant to ease, not hinder, access.