Denmark and Norway have become the latest countries to implement restrictions on travellers arriving in the country from Malta owing to the increase in Covid-19 cases.
In a statement, the Danish Foreign Affairs Ministry said that Belgium and Malta have been added to the list of countries to which all unnecessary travel is discouraged due to an excessive number of infected.
Figures showed that Malta had exceeded the criterion set for the national infection rate for the country to be deemed safe.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs thus advises against all unnecessary travel (orange) to Andorra, Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and Spain due to the infection rates”, the Danish government said.
The ministry also said that as from Saturday 15 August 2020 at 00.00, travellers from Malta will require a “recognisable purpose” to enter Denmark.
Also on Thursday, another Scandinavian country – Norway – elected to impose restrictions on those entering the country from Malta amongst other countries.
Travellers arriving in the country from Malta must undergo a mandatory 10-day period of quarantine.
Norwegian health authorities meanwhile have recommended against travel until at least 1 October.
The two countries join several others which have implemented restrictions on travel between them and Malta, and come on the day that it was reported that Malta will be removed from the UK’s safe travel list as well – a potentially mortal blow for the tourism industry.
Italy has announced that it requires coronavirus tests for people arriving from Croatia, Malta, Spain and Greece after a spate of new infections were registered in Italians returning home from vacation.
Both Belgium and the Netherlands meanwhile have placed Malta on their ‘orange list’ for travel.
Meanwhile, Slovenia also removed Malta from its travel green-list, joining Ireland and the three Baltic countries in this regard.
Furthermore, one requires a negative Covid-19 swab test to travel from Malta to Greece, with that negative test result having to be a maximum of 72 hours before departure to the Mediterranean destination.
Quarantine regulations are also in place for Ireland and all three Baltic countries.