A further five people tested positive for COVID overnight, while three recovered, according to health authorities' data.

This means Malta now has 29 active cases.

No COVID-related deaths were reported over the past hours, while a total of 3,127 swabs were tested On Thursday.

Meanwhile, the same data shows that a total of 646,651 COVID vaccination doses have been administered, while 303,939 people are fully vaccinated.

Children aged between 12 and 15 will start receiving invitations to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before the weekend, Health Minister Chris Fearne said earlier on Friday.

 

The news comes just as Malta announced that UK arrivals have to present a vaccine certificate from June 30. The UK has also added Malta to its quarantine-free green list, in a major boost to the hard-hit tourism industry.

Malta has meanwhile finalised testing its EU vaccine certificate (EUDCC) systems, just in time for the bloc-wide rollout on Thursday. 

According to the  European Commission's website, all member states are now "technically ready to connect to the EUDCC gateway". Earlier in June, Malta was one of just three countries that were still in the testing phase.

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