The health authorities will be announcing decisions aimed at enhancing the importance and take-up of the booster dose to fight COVID-19, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Thursday morning, 

Speaking in an interview on One radio, an hour before a scheduled press conference by Health Minister Chris Fearne, the prime minister said that over the past months the people had lived closer to normality, thanks to vaccination.

Those who had not been vaccinated needed to do so, and others needed to take their booster dose, he said.

The summer and the autumn had been saved for the economy thanks to wise measures, he said.

It was decided some time ago that measures would be imposed on the basis of hospital admissions and the number of those in intensive care. Despite an increase in new COVID cases, the situation regarding admissions and intensive care had remained stable, he said.

The government was focused on developments day by day. Things changed with little warning and the government would act accordingly if needed.

But the key, for now, was that it was crucial for the people to take their booster jab. The vaccine was effective and secure and if people wanted to live closer to normality, the main tool was the vaccine and the booster dose.

The government wanted to ‘save’ winter as it had saved the summer and the autumn, he said.

Talks had been held with the health authorities and a number of decisions would be announced shortly by the health authorities aimed to increase the importance of the booster dose. While take-up was high, more could be done, he said.

Abela said the government would courageously take whatever decisions were needed to safeguard public health and protect the economy. Indeed despite the pandemic, the economy was doing very well and projections were very good. Unemployment was at a record low. 

One of those decisions taken some months ago was the requirement for tourists to produce a vaccination certificate. That decision was criticised at the time and a substantial number of tourists had cancelled their visit, but the sector then recovered and a number of countries were now doing what Malta had started.  

The world did not have the vaccine last year, but now that it has it, it needed to utilise it fully to return to normality. 

He reiterated that the wage supplement would be retained until the end of January, and the decision would be reviewed closer to that date. The government could then decide to retain it or reformulate it as needed. The bottom line was that businesses would not be left on their own. 

But business owners needed to be responsible too, he said. They needed to help the authorities through the observance of current measures to help curb the spread of the virus.