Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1367395
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 MAY 2021 NEWS Delivery fee of just €1 per day for orders up to 5 newspapers per address To subscribe 1. Email us your choice of newspapers, recipient's name, address, contact number to production @millermalta.com 2. Forward cheques payable to Miller Distributors Ltd on address: Miller House, Airport Way, Tarxien Road, Luqa LQA1814 Queries on other news- papers and magazines, production@ millermalta.com maltatoday Same-day delivery of your favourite Sunday newspaper Monday-Friday MaltaToday Midweek • €1 BusinessToday • €1.50 Sunday MaltaToday • €1.95 ILLUM • €1.25 Support your favourite newspaper with a subscription https://bit.ly/2X9csmr Cases 30,307 Active 270 Recoveries 29,522 Deaths 415 Vaccines 335,848 LATEST COVID-19 www.maltatoday.com.mt/covid19 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Health Minister Chris Fearne has said government intends pro- posing changes to the Embryo Protection Act to allow genetic testing of embryos to minimise the risk of hereditary diseases or conditions being transmitted from parents to their prospective children. Fearne did not give de- tails and no draft text exists yet. But sources have suggested that Vella is uncomfortable with PGD and its ethical implications. Before his appointment as head of state, Vella had expressed seri- ous reservations on the IVF law changes pushed by government in 2018. He had branded the IVF Bill "a complete travesty of ethics, mo- rality, and human dignity, alleg- edly to remove 'discrimination' imposed by nature herself". The Bill made embryo freez- ing legal, allowed egg and sperm donation, and made treatment accessible to single women and lesbians. Vella had also questioned why government was going down a "slippery slope" to deliver "the utopic promise of equality". The 2018 amendments removed several restrictions to IVF but doctors in the field believe they did not go far enough. Although the law allows doctors to fertilise up to a maximum of five eggs and embryos to be fro- zen, women have to use up all frozen embryos, even if these are deemed to be of inferior quality, before undergoing a fresh IVF cy- cle. The law also does not allow embryos to be discarded or be used for scientific research. With these constraints, PGD cannot be carried out. The ge- netic tests are normally carried out on embryos when there is a family history of genetic diseases, in order to select the healthy fer- tilised eggs for transfer into the woman's womb. Embryos that carry the genetic disorder are normally discarded or given up for scientific research. Vella had branded IVF bill 'travesty of ethics and morality' PAGES 12-13 Vaccination programme CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A vaccination certificate shall only be valid for a peri- od of six months. A digital 'trust framework' will be used between coun- tries for the issuance and verification of vaccine certifi- cates, providing for the inter- operability, integrity and au- thenticity of such certificates. Malta's vaccination pro- gramme is one of the most advanced: cohorts of peo- ple aged 50 and recently 40, were asked to register in the month of April alone, as the vaccination rollout proceeds far ahead of schedule, health minister Chris Fearne said. Fearne said that over- 50s can register online or through SMS. Yesterday, over 5,000 peo- ple were vaccinated in Malta. Malta is now on course to reach herd immunity by the end of June, and not Septem- ber, as had previously been planned, because of the ac- celerated vaccination pro- gramme employed. The authorities' original plan was to have 80% of over 80s vaccinated by the end of March. But with the fast roll- out, 95% of the age group had received the jab by the target date. Deputy prime minister and health minister Chris Fearne yesterday announced on Twitter that Malta has now 270 active cases of coronavi- rus. He said this was the low- est figure of active cases since August 2020, when public health restrictions were lifted after May and travel tor Mal- ta had resumed. Two men, aged 70 and 91, died at Mater Dei Hospital while COVID-19 positive. The island registered just 15 new cases between Friday and Saturday, and 74 new recoveries. There have now been a total 30,307 cases and 29,622 recoveries. Malta has been vaccinating people at a faster rate than any other EU country. As of Saturday, authorities had ad- ministered just over 335, 000 vaccine doses in total. More than 107,000 adults are al- ready fully vaccinated. Vac- cination is currently open to anyone aged 40 or over, with registration available online or by SMS.