PN leader Bernard Grech has called for the government to publish a "detailed strategy" on how a COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered in Malta.
Welcoming the news that the UK has approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for rollout from next week, Grech said it was important to know how Malta will go about vaccinating.
"We cannot make mistakes at this stage," he said.
Health minister Chris Fearne has previously suggested it will be December before the European Medicines Agency approves a COVID-19 vaccine and has said the elderly and frontliners will be the first to be offered it.
On Wednesday the health spokesman for the biggest group in the European Parliament urged member states not to follow the UK’s example and grant emergency approval to Pfizer-BioNTech.
Peter Liese said: "I consider this decision to be problematic and recommend that EU Member States do not repeat the process in the same way.”
Liese said that a few weeks of “thorough examination” by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is better than “a hasty emergency marketing authorisation of a vaccine".
Liese stressed that the decision had nothing to do with Brexit. Under the European rules to which the UK is still bound to until the end of the year, all EU states have the possibility to grant national emergency authorisation in certain cases.
“Other member states are not following the UK example because they believe that careful consideration by the European Medicines Agency will give people additional security. The information of the last weeks was mainly based on press releases and much of the data has only been available for the authorities for a few hours.”
He said that with such a large-scale vaccination campaign, it is important to look “closely and carefully” and check the information provided by the companies.
“I have confidence in BioNTech, but (while) confidence is good, control is better," he said.
Emergency authorisation, Liese continued, is a tool normally intended for patients who suffer from a serious and incurable disease and where there is no other means of saving life or physical integrity.
This was not the case with corona, the MEP, who is also a doctor, said.
“Although the restrictions are very burdensome for all of us, I believe it is right to still keep (a) distance and wear a mask for a little longer now, rather than irresponsibly speed up the authorisation.”