Malta Scraps Test Requirement for Minors Starting From Today
Such an announcement was made by the Maltese official travel portal, Visit Malta. The website noted that all individuals under 12 will now be permitted restriction-free entry, regardless of their country of origin, AtoZSerwisPlus.mt reports.
“Children under the age of 12 will no longer be required to present a negative PCR Test Result before travelling to Malta,” the statement of Visit Malta reads.
Apart from scrapping the testing requirement for minors, Malta has already relaxed some of its entry rules for the other travellers as well. Nonetheless, everyone over 12 still remains subject to the requirement to present one of the COVID passes.
Earlier in May, the Maltese authorities said that the country would no longer impose entry rules based on the country of origin a person is travelling from. Instead, entry to Malta now depends on the immunity status of a traveller.
This means that all travellers over the age of 12 need to present a vaccination, recovery, or test certificate upon their arrival in Malta in order to avoid additional restrictions.
“As from June 6 2022, persons aged 12 years and over are permitted to travel to Malta without undergoing quarantine in accordance with the Standards for the Validity of Vaccine Certificates, Recovery Certificates and Test Certificates for the purpose of Travel to Malta? and are subject to the provision of proof of either of the three following documents: proof of vaccination, proof of recovery, or test certificate,” the Maltese government notes.
The government explains that those who fail to present one of the required certificates will be subject to a ten-day quarantine requirement, which can be reduced to seven days if a negative test result is provided on this day.
The decision of the Maltese authorities to facilitate some of the entry rules follows the high vaccination rates. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control shows that Malta has administered a total of 1,211,066 COVID-19 vaccine doses as of June 2.
In addition, the same reveals that 93.8 per cent of the entire adult population in Malta has completed primary vaccination, and another 80.4 per cent of the population has already received a booster shot.
Previously, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that Malta expects 1.8 million tourist arrivals this year. The Malta Tourism Authority said that the country aims to attract such a high number of tourists now that the COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed in the country and further in the world.
