Malta has registered 27 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours from 1,883 swab tests, while 30 patients have recovered. This information was announced by the official Facebook page of Malta’s Ministry for Health.
As of Friday 16th April 2021, 264,658 vaccine doses were administered of which 80,671 were 2nd doses.
To date, Malta has registered 29,860 COVID-19 cases in total, of which: 28,872 have recovered, 405 died and 583 are still active.
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The Association of Private Family Doctors (APFD) has stated that decriminalisation of cannabis can lead to the use of other illicit drugs and thus called to establish a minimum age for legal cannabis use. The association recognises the need for the substance’s decriminalisation in small quantities, but it could lead to an increase in overall consumption and use of other illicit drugs.
With the government’s launch of a public consultation process on the White Paper to strengthen the legal framework on the responsible use, the APFD stated that use of cannabis in young brains has more harmful effects, alongside the risk of dependence and the move to harder illicit drugs. The APFD also suggested increased campaigns of educational content targeted at vulnerable groups.
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The Malta Independent has been informed that 68% of the vaccine doses administered in Malta up until last Sunday were Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The figures were provided by the Health Ministry and show that along with 28% being AstraZeneca and 4% being Moderna, Pfizer makes up the bulk of administered vaccines. Translated numerically, 166,244 were Pfizer vaccines.
As for the other vaccine brands, 68,147 were AstraZeneca and 10,327 Moderna. The figures do not however specify whether the doses were first or second doses and how many people received each vaccine. The number of people fully vaccinated with the Pfizer is higher than those vaccinated with other vaccines. This is due to waiting period, with Pfizer requiring only three-week gaps, significantly lower than the others.
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According to Eurostat, Malta has recorded the biggest drop in retail volume within the EU in February. Other member states made a recovery of 3% between January and February, Malta suffered a drop of 1.5%. The sector in the majority of EU countries improved with Austria, Slovenia and Italy at the helm. Despite this, an overall drop of 2.2% across Europe in February when compared to 2020 indicates that the sector is still recuperating from the COVID-19 impact.
Comparing February of last year and this year, Malta registered the third-highest drop at 8.9%. Malta Chamber of SMEs Vice President Philip Fenech stated that 70% of retail in Malta depends on tourism and thus the drop was not surprising. Prime Minister Robert Abela stated last Sunday that authorities were developing a financial aid package for those hit hardest by the pandemic.
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