Two new testing hubs will start testing for COVID-19, this time via rapid testing.
This is after the thousands of rapid testing kits, which have recently entered the international market and have been clinically approved to be efficient in the results given, have started to arrive in the country.
This was announced by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health Chris Fearne during a press conference, with the theme Maltese with a Strong Forward.
Minister Fearne explained that from today the rapid testing service will be provided by the new Floriana hub and that next week he will be opening another rapid testing hub in the North of Malta. “This will make it possible to do the thousand rapid tests a day without hindrance to the thousands of normal tests that are being done daily in the six existing hubs.”
The Deputy Prime Minister explained how the plan is to offer rapid testing to the staff of old people’s homes, Malta International Airport, schools and health workers, among others.
During the same press conference, the Deputy Prime Minister gave a list of the measures announced in the 2021 Budget, outlining how 2021 is a record year for the budget allocated to the health sector, which will amount to around € 824 million. He noted that this contrasts sharply with the budgets given to the health sector under previous governments. Among others, Chris Fearne mentioned that over the next year more drugs will continue to be added to the government formulary such as medicines for osteoporosis, psychiatric medicines and medicines for HIV.
“It is worth mentioning that this year we also introduced important medicines on the government formulary including medicines for the prostate from which about 15,000 men are benefiting and the pneumoccoccal and meningiococcal vaccines that are being given to all babies who were born this year “, said the Deputy Prime Minister.
He also mentioned several capital projects that are being carried out in the field of health, among them the Health Center in Victoria, Gozo, which is expected to be completed next year, the new Outpatients building and the the new Mater Dei car park which is expected to be completed in the year 2024, and the hospital for acute psychiatric care which is expected to be completed in 2024.
