Malta to ease travel restrictions despite record Covid cases, spike in deaths

The government is set to ease COVID-19 travel restrictions as of Monday, despite Malta having a record number of positive cases and a spike in deaths linked to the virus.

According to the latest updates on Visit Malta, as of 25 July, people travelling to Malta without a vaccine certificate or a recovery certificate do not need to present a PCR/Rapid Test before arriving in the country, allowing travellers to enter without the requirement of presenting a vaccination recovery or test certificate upon arrival. 

This easing of measures comes at a time when Malta is experiencing a large spike in positive cases and COVID-related deaths, according to the latest report on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)’s weekly COVID-19 Surveillance Bulletin. Malta registered the highest COVID-19 death rate in the EU at 36.8 deaths per one million people – its highest rate since May.

The ECDC also reported Malta’s positivity rate to be among the highest in the EU, ranking behind Hungary, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Between 1 July and 17 July, Malta registered 36 COVID deaths, compared to 20 throughout June and 22 in May.

Malta’s positivity rate has been rising over the past few weeks and has reached a record rate since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Malta. The ECDC also forecasted deaths and positive cases to increase in July.

‘Act now’ – WHO

Most European Union/Schengen Area countries have already eased travel restrictions, according to Schengen Visa. On Tuesday, WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Henri P.Kluge issued a statement telling the authorities to “act now”.

Kluge said that we are currently “in a similar situation to last summer” – where the Delta variant amid the lifting of restrictions and increased social mixing drove a new wave of COVID-19 across the European region. This time, with a new variant. 

“Only this time, the ongoing COVID-19 wave is being propelled by sub-lineages of the Omicron variant, notably BA.2 and BA.5, with each dominant sub-lineage of Omicron showing clear transmission advantages over the previously circulating viruses. 

Europe has seen a tripling of new cases over the past six weeks. While hospitalisation rates have doubled in the same period, intensive care unit admissions have remained relatively low so far.

“However, as infection rates in older groups continue to rise, Europe is still seeing close to 3,000 people die of COVID-19 every week,” Kluge said.   “With rising cases, we’re also seeing a rise in hospitalisations, which are only set to increase further in the autumn and winter months.”

On Tuesday, WHO Europe released its autumn/winter strategy for COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses to help prepare for the coming weeks of infection. Kluge warned that waiting for autumn to act “will be too late”.

The strategy calls on countries to relaunch mitigation efforts and be ready to respond to an increased burden on their healthcare systems. It calls on authorities to implement “pandemic stabilisers” that will be “critical” to protecting citizens during autumn and winter, including increasing vaccine uptake in the population, administering the second booster, promoting mask-wearing indoors and on public transport, ventilating crowded and public spaces.

These should be underpinned by initiatives including strengthening infection control practices and prioritising contact tracing and quarantining based on WHO recommendations, according to the strategy.

“If health authorities act now, they can help reduce the anticipated disruptions to society, including health worker absences and overburdened health systems, struggling businesses and travel chaos,” Kluge said.