Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1361479
2 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 14 APRIL 2021 NEWS MALTA has registered 59 new cases of COVID-19 and one death in the past 24 hours, according to the daily bulletin released by the health ministry. The latest victim is a 68-year-old woman, who died at Mater Dei Hospital while positive with coronavirus. Since the start of the pandemic, Malta registered 29,720 cases, including 403 deaths. Over the past 24 hours there were 50 recoveries, bringing the number of active cases to 561. The vaccination drive has continued in earnest with 249,400 doses administered by yesterday. Of these, 74,053 were second doses. Malta is awaiting the arrival of the Janssen (Johnson & John- son) single-shot vaccine, which will be the fourth anti-COVID vaccine in the health authorities' arsenal and which is expected to boost the inoculation effort. COVID-19 59 new cases, one death Malta in talks with UK over COVID-19 vaccine digital certificate for ease of travel CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Clayton Bartolo said the digital certificate, which comes with a QR code, will have on it the date of the first dose of the vaccine and the date of the second dose. He was speaking in parliament on Tuesday when replying to a number of questions put to him by Opposition MPs. "The vaccination dates are im- portant because the certificate will be valid after a lapse of 10 days from the second dose," Bar- tolo said, adding talks with the UK were progressing well. The Malta Information Tech- nology Agency is working on this digital certificate that would allow travellers to produce it as proof of vaccination against COVID-19. Bartolo said talks were under- way with the European Commis- sion on a vaccine digital certifi- cate but insisted Malta will not be held back if the EU talks drag on. "We will not be limited by the European Commission talks and if they drag on beyond Malta's target for recovery we will en- ter into bilateral agreements like those we are currently discuss- ing with the UK," Bartolo said. The minister said that there were ongoing discussions with airlines to increase the seat ca- pacity, adding that 70% of the 2019 routes servicing Malta were restored. Government has set 1 June as a target to restart the tourism industry in line with the robust vaccination drive that is ex- pected to see all the population receive its first dose by the first week of June. Asked about private promot- ers, who are advertising a music festival for September, Bartolo said that as things stand today mass events cannot be held but it is not illegal to market some- thing. Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo says Malta is holding bilateral talks with the UK over a common coronavirus vaccine certificate and will not be held back if EU talks drag on