People aged over 60 will start receiving COVID-19 vaccination appointments as of today, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Saturday as he moved to reassure people aged 71 to 74 that they would not be left behind. 

Fearne said that appointments for those aged 60 and over would start from Saturday, with vaccination appointments spread out over a number of weeks. 

He said this would include those aged 71 to 74. 

The minister’s announcement comes one day after Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci said that a vaccine made by AstraZeneca would now start being administered to patients aged up to 70, in line with new scientific evidence. The vaccine was previously restricted to those under 55. 

Senior citizens are receiving vaccines made by Pfizer or Moderna. 

The shift in policy left people in the 71-74 age cohort wondering whether they would be left waiting for a jab while those aged 60 to 70 were called up for vaccination. 

Authorities have been reluctant to divulge how many vaccine doses the country has been receiving or to provide a breakdown of dosage supply by manufacturer. 

Fearne said that the government has now expanded vaccination centres to 40 as it cranks up its vaccine rollout efforts, with vaccines being administered at University, the Armed Forces barracks in Luqa and Water Services Corporation headquarters, among other places. 

More than 90,000 vaccine doses had been administered so far, with over 31,000 of those being second doses. The country must administer around 2,600 vaccines per day if it is to inoculate 70 per cent of adults by the end of summer.