Malta will receive a COVID-19 vaccine “within days” of its release, Health Minister Chris Fearne said in comments to Times of Malta.

This comes as the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced yesterday that its clinical trials of the vaccine had yielded a 90 per cent success rate. The European Union also said it is close to signing a contract with Pfizer and BioNTech to acquire 300 million doses of their vaccine.

Fearne said that this progress was “good news” but was wary of the situation, saying that further tests still need to be done in order to confirm the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, which includes the elimination of side effects.

The health minister did confirm that Pfizer is one of the companies the EU is dealing with, noting that Malta will receive the vaccine “within days” of it release. Fearne also noted that when this happens, priority will be given to the vulnerable and frontliners.

Local virologist Chris Barbara also said he was “very optimistic and happy” about the latest development with the vaccine, and like Fearne, expressed caution as final testing is yet to be carried out. Barbara, clinical chairman of the Pathology Department in Mater Dei, will be meeting with Pfizer in the coming days to ask “a whole list of questions” on the latest updates and when Phase 3 will come to a close.

“In real terms, this means the vaccine is managing to elicit immunity – and we know that the way the immune system reacts to COVID-19 is quite complex, with multiple pathways,” he said. “We were not sure how the virus would react, but today’s results are even more promising.”

Currently, Malta has 1,980 active cases. Since the start of the pandemic, 7,423 cases have been registered, 5,185 of which have recovered while 81 have died.