Prime Minister Robert Abela said he is not against the donation of extra COVID-19 vaccines to other countries although he is reluctant to commit to figures just yet. 

In reply to questions by Times of Malta on Monday, during a press conference launching vaccine certificates, Abela said Malta is not against donations "in principle" but "cannot commit to an amount" at the moment. 

Abela said he made his position known during the latest EU summit held in Brussels last week, during which member states discussed the issued of donating vaccines to other nations.

"I said this not to be egoistic but I said it in a situation when we don't know if we would need booster doses, whether we will be vaccinating children, and when we still need to vaccinate everyone," Abela said. 

As of Sunday, Malta has administered around 515,662 doses, with the vaccination drive now open to anyone over 16. 

In February, Health Minister Chris Fearne had said Malta had secured double the number of vaccines it needed to inoculate the entire country and plans on donating or selling the surplus jabs. 

"We will be giving doses of the vaccine to countries that would probably not even have started inoculating citizens by the time Malta will have already finished. That is our plan in action," Fearne had said.

Meanwhile, speaking at the same press conference alongside Abela, Fearne said Malta has enough doses on order to vaccinate people until 2023. He did not say how many doses are on order.

During the press conference, Abela and Fearne unveiled Malta's vaccine certificate, which will facilitate travel for fully-vaccinated travellers and also permit certain activities. 

And after the European Medicines Agency approved the use of the Pfizer jab for those aged between 12 and 16, the health authorities said they would be vaccinating those in this age group in July.