Malta Drops COVID Entry Rules for All Travellers
This means that all travellers can now enter Malta for all kinds of purposes even if they do not hold a vaccination, recovery, or test certificate, AtoZSerwisPlus.mt reports.
The announcement on the lifting of the entry rules was made by the official travel portal of Malta, Visit Malta, earlier this month. The portal said that travellers, regardless of their country of origin, will be permitted restriction-free entry as soon as the restrictions get dropped.
“As from July 25, 2022, people travelling to Malta without a vaccine certificate or a recovery certificate do not need to present a negative PCR/Rapid Test before arriving in Malta,” the portal’s statement reads.
Malta took the decision to lift the entry restrictions despite the high number of infection cases reported in the EU. According to the World Health Organization, Malta recorded 3,425 new Coronavirus infection cases in the last seven days.
As for the vaccination rates, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Controls shows that Malta has administered 1,248,452 vaccine doses as of June 30. The health agency further shows that 93.9 per cent of the entire adult population in Malta has completed primary vaccination, and another 80.5 per cent of the population has received the first booster shot.
Except for Malta, another 25 EU/Schengen Area countries have also already dropped all of their COVID entry rules.
The list of countries that have lifted their entry rules includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland.
All these countries permit restriction-free entry, meaning that travellers do not need to present a vaccination, recovery, or test certificate upon their arrival.
Now that Malta has dropped its entry rules, the country is expected to register a higher number of arrivals in August and exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Previously, AtoZSerwisPlus.mt reported that Malta is among the European destinations that neared the pre-pandemic volumes in May.
The quarterly report by the European Travel Commission shows that Malta registered a high number of tourist arrivals in May and remained only a little bit behind the pre-pandemic volumes. Taking into account that most travellers hesitated to reach Malta until now due to its restrictions, now that the COVID entry rules have been dropped, a higher number of travellers may choose to visit Malta in August.
