Residents at care homes for the elderly started receiving a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, as Malta begins its booster shot vaccination campaign.

Senior citizens living at the Floriana nursing home were the first to be inoculated with booster doses, with Health Minister Chris Fearne and Senior Citizens Minister Michael Farrugia both present to mark the milestone.

Residents at St Vincent de Paul, the country’s largest care home, will start receiving booster doses later this week.

Authorities initially planned on starting the administration of booster shots on September 13, but moved that date forward after two clusters of cases were found within care homes last week. 

The booster campaign will ramp up as of next week, when immunocompromised patients will start receiving a third vaccine dose. Fearne has previously said that the government is also looking at clinical data to determine whether booster doses should also be administered to the elderly population more generally.

All booster shots are mRNA vaccines manufactured by Pfizer or Moderna.

The drive to administer booster vaccine doses has been heightened by the spread of the more contagious Delta virus variant, with governments keen to shore up immunity among members of the population which have weaker immune systems.  

Malta is one of the first European countries to begin administering booster shots. France is offering third doses to those with weakened immune systems, while Germany has said that it will start offering all those classified as vulnerable booster shots as of this month. Hungary has gone one further and is offering all citizens a third vaccine dose.

Israel is also administering booster doses, with the US expected to begin its booster campaign this month.

The World Health Organisation has been critical of plans to roll out widespread vaccine booster campaigns, saying millions of people around the globe have yet to receive a single COVID-19 vaccine dose yet.