Updated with contribution by Department of Pharmacy students (16 March 2021)
As the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Malta is fast gaining momentum, a number of University staff and students have quickly stepped in to administer shots and fulfil other related vaccination duties.
Students of the Department of Nursing within the Faculty of Health Sciences will be administering vaccines to the Armed Forces of Malta and the Malta Police Force at their respective headquarters as of Monday, 22 February 2021.
Academic staff of the Faculty of Health Sciences, will, as of Wednesday, 24 February, be inoculating UM staff at Gateway Building, whilst administrative staff of the Department of Nursing have taken on the complicated administrative role of scheduling the roll-out of the vaccine.
About 50 volunteers from the Faculty of Dental Surgery, a mix of staff and students, are also giving some of their time to administer vaccines. Prof. Nikolai Attard, Dean of the Faculty, who was also among the volunteers, said he felt it was their “duty to play a part in vaccinating the Maltese population”. He also commended his students for their immediate response towards this national effort.
This news comes after the University agreed with the Public Health Authorities to make part of the Gateway Building available as a Vaccination Centre.
Pictured above: Four of the eight immunisation booths set up at Gateway Building
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Malta has been at the forefront to assist our Health Authorities in the best way possible, with Gateway Building’s temporary transformation into a ward to cater for non-COVID-19 patients, previous academics and students’ contributions to the national COVID-19 strategy, and researchers’ efforts to understand more about this virus as very valid examples of this.
In light of Health Sciences staff and student contributions, Dr Roberta Sammut, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, remarked that the Faculty is proud to be part of history, and that the scale of its members’ involvement has evolved rapidly and ranged broadly.
“Other than having a unique opportunity for this practice, students and staff should definitely serve as a motivation to protect the population and restore hope in these challenging times. After all, the University is much more than a teaching institution; its aim is to develop its students into active members of society and to actively serve the nation with its expertise and resources.”
Meanwhile, undergraduate and post-graduate students following courses in pharmacy and pharmaceutical technology offered by the Department of Pharmacy are also contributing to the COVID-19 vaccination programme. For the past three weeks, these students are participating in a volunteering task force to support the reconstitution and preparation for administration for COVID-19 vaccines. They are involved with syringe preparation, which is essential t ensure the vaccine doses are available to be administered according to the vaccine scheduling programme.
The students received training on the procedures and are collaborating with the Pharmacy Department at Mater Dei Hospital. The students feel that in this way, they are contributing to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by participating in aseptic vaccine reconstitution techniques and relevant good documentation practice.
Pictured above: The four B.Sc (Hons) Nursing students deployed to AFM on Monday 22 February.
Pictured above: Prof. Nikolai Attard, Dean of the Faculty for Dental Surgery, introducing UM Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella to some of his students.
On the morning of Wednesday, 24 February, University of Malta Rector visited the University staff at the Immunisation Centre set up at Gateway Building, to thank them for volunteering their time to give this service. He also received the first dose of the vaccine, administered by Prof. Attard himself.