Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1379276
2 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 2 JUNE 2021 NEWS COVID-19 Elderly in homes to get €100 as direct contribution instead of government COVID vouchers CONTINUED FROM PAGE1 In this second round of vouchers issued in a bid to in- centivise customer spending and provide assistance to busi- nesses badly hit by COVID-19, the government opted to give a direct contribution to residents of care homes. Schembri said that the gov- ernment had recognised that many care home residents had not made use of the vouchers in the first scheme last year and that they would probably prefer to spend the money on other goods and services. "Because of this, elderly resi- dents of public and private care homes will not be receiving the vouchers but will instead receive €100 in their bank account or by government cheque," he said. This money will be deposit- ed in teh accounts or sent by cheque at the end of June. In this second scheme, gov- ernment introduced a digital version that can be easily down- loaded onto a smartphone. Thus far, more than 81,103 digital versions of the vouchers have been downloaded, Econ- omy Minister Silvio Schembri said on Tuesday. Of those, 72% used their ex- isting E-ID to download the app, while the remaining 28% used personal identifica- tion to register on the wallet. vouchersmimcol.com website. Residents of Malta, including foreigners with Maltese resi- dency, can download the digi- tal vouchers until midnight on Friday this week. Those who choose not to will receive printed vouchers by mail starting on 7 June. 66% of all downloads so far where by Maltese citizens, while foreigners with a valid residence permit accounted for the remaining 34%. The government has been en- couraging people to download the digital vouchers instead of waiting to receive the printed vouchers in the post. "There are advantages to downloading the digital vouch- ers," Schembri said. "Digital vouchers cannot be lost, and even if you lose or change your phone, you can log in into the website on a new phone and still access the vouchers. But if you lose or damage the printed vouchers, they cannot be re- placed." Additionally, digital vouch- ers can be easily transferred to someone else and can be used immediately from Monday, when the scheme comes into play, without having to wait to receive the printed vouchers by post. Economy minister Silvio Schembri EIGHT cases of COVID-19 were registered on Tuesday, the health ministry said. 519,994 doses of the COV- ID-19 vaccine had been admin- istered until Monday. Of those, 210,486 are people who are fully vaccinated. Total recoveries stand at 30,543, while total cases regis- tered stand at 30,054. There are 70 active COV- ID-19 cases. No deaths were registered in the 24 hours up to midday yes- terday. The total number of deaths stands at 419. 2,026 swab tests were car- ried out in the same 24 hours, bringing the total number of swabs to 928,790. Eight new cases and four recoveries