The health authorities have had to reschedule "some" COVID-19 vaccination appointments after less Pfizer doses were supplied in recent days. 

Times of Malta is informed groups of people who were due to receive their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine have had their appointments pushed back.

They were not given any details about the delay but only told they will be vaccinated in the coming days. 

Contacted for a comment, a health ministry spokesperson confirmed "some Pfizer appointments had to be rescheduled by a couple of days due to less doses being delivered by the supplier.

"These individuals have been given a new date and will be vaccinated shortly," she said. 

The spokesperson did not say how many people have been impacted by the issue and why the supplier was providing less doses. 

According to Health Minister Chris Fearne, Malta spent close to €100 million on COVID-19 vaccines alone. Most of this cost was subsidised by the European Union and the bulk of this cost will be recouped.

As of Saturday, Malta had administered 512,214 doses, with 205,221 people fully-vaccinated. 

Last week, Fearne announced Malta had achieved its goal of giving 70 per cent of the adult population at least one dose of the vaccine, the first country in the EU to reach this goal. 

This has prompted the health authorities to announce more easing of measures, with mask-wearing to no longer be mandatory from July for those who are fully-vaccinated. 

Meanwhile, Malta's COVID-19 death rate plummeted to zero after the spread of infection continued to slow down in recent weeks. 

The country's case and death rates were registered as the lowest in the EU earlier in May, with the ranking reconfirmed last week by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.