Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday urged the public to get vaccinated to help facilitate the country’s social and economic recovery from the crippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking during an interview on the Labour Party’s ONE, Abela said the uptake of the vaccine for the virus had so far been even better than expected.
Malta is among the world's leaders in terms of vaccine roll out speed, with some 461,000 doses administered as of Friday. Medical sources expect the country to have given 70 per cent of the eligible population at least one dose by the middle of next week.
Abela urged all those who had not yet signed up for the vaccine to do so at the earliest possibility. Registration is available online or by SMS.
Once the country was safe from the virus, it would be safe to lift many more restrictions.
A-level student Rianne Demicoli, invited as part of a panel of guest speakers, also encouraged the public to sign up for the vaccine. She said she and her friends had all applied to get vaccinated once it was opened to those aged over 16.
Youth, she said, was a once in a lifetime experience, and getting vaccinated was the key to getting back to living life and enjoying one's youth.
The Labour leader meanwhile said Malta’s vaccine program was proving so successful that other EU countries were considering it a best practice and trying to emulate it.
A look back over 12 months
Abela started off his interview by looking back at the past year, detailing the government’s efforts to help keep families and businesses afloat after the pandemic saw commercial and social activity grind to a halt.
It would soon be a year since the government had unveiled an economic regeneration plan which saw some €900 million distributed from the national purse.
Abela said stimulus had started with major tax deferrals and quickly moved on to the wage supplement program. This, he said, had been the primary measure that kept unemployment at pre-pandemic levels.
Then the government had introduced some €45 million in vouchers that were distributed to everyone over the age of 16. This not only had a direct capital injection into businesses but also came with a multiplier effect of additional spend.
In fact, in 2020 more Maltese had stayed in Gozitan hotels than they had done in 2019.
“These are the positive impact of the vouchers, which we have just rolled out for a second time,” he said.
Matthew Pace of the Association of Catering Establishments, said restaurants were looking forward to having their opening times stretched from 5pm to midnight as of Monday.
He said the initial opening for lunch service had been successful and it was clear the public were hungry to get back to dining tables.
A new phenomenon seen in recent days had seen people take time off from work to go out and have lunch together.
In a brief video, a restaurateur said he had not expected the return to business to be as good as it had proven to be so far.