Travelling to Malta requires vaccine certification of negative PCR test result prior to boarding

Travellers visiting Malta must present a vaccination certificate or negative PCR test results at their departure point from Tuesday.

Passengers are requested to provide a  valid  vaccination certificate  showing  they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or present a negative Polymerase  Chain  Reaction test  performed  not  longer  than 72 hours before that person’s arrival in Malta.

Should they still be allowed to board, passengers will have to foot the cost of a PCR test in Malta, as well as accommodation expenses to cover quarantine. The new rules are applicable to everyone, except for children under the age of five, the legal notice states.

The Tourism Business Section within the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry welcomes the legal notice on the conditions to be imposed on persons travelling to and from Malta as it charts the way to open and facilitate travel safely.

The Legal Notice makes the requirement to present a negative PCR result prior to boarding. This brings Malta on similar lines to other countries. The Tourism Business Section believes that this is critical to provide reassurance for travellers and locals while facilitating travel in a meaningful way.

The Tourism Business Section representing a wide range of stakeholders in the travel and tourism industry, had urged the authorities to outline the way forward and ease restrictions on non-essential travel to reflect the remarkable progress of vaccination programmes in the EU. This call reflected the scientific advice that vaccination considerably helps to break the transmission chain of COVID-19.

Notwithstanding this important development, the Malta Chamber calls for continued vigilance in the context of the emergence of coronavirus variants. The Maltese authorities should continue limiting the risk of such variants of concern entering the Maltese islands and strict restrictions should remain in place.