Around 100,000 doses of swine flu vaccines are expected to arrive in Malta late tonight.

Health care workers will be the first to be vaccinated tomorrow at the Floriana health centre while the inoculation of vulnerable groups will start on Saturday.

Pregnant women and chronic patients can go to their local health centre to receive the jab.

A second batch of vaccines is expected in the first quarter of the year to cover the rest of the population, including children between six months and nine years of age and those over 60 who will need two doses. Everyone should be vaccinated by March.

Since the swine flu was identified in Malta last June, vulnerable people with flu-like symptoms have been treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

While Tamiflu is a treatment for influenza, the GlaxoSmithKline's H1N1 vaccine Pandremix is given to healthy individuals to protect them from the disease.

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