Starting today, June 6, children under the age of 12 will no longer be required to show a negative COVID-19 test result when entering Malta.
The Maltese official travel portal, Visit Malta, made such an announcement. The website noted that all individuals under 12 will now be permitted restriction-free entry, regardless of their country of origin.
Apart from scrapping the testing requirement for minors, Malta has already relaxed some of its entry rules for other travellers. Nonetheless, everyone over 12 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 to avoid additional restrictions.
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 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.
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 and further in the world.
