Malta should adopt a wait-and-see approach to determine if the Covid-19 vaccine works on the Indian variant before deciding whether or not to bar travel to the United Kingdom, the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) has said.

Given the ever-rising number of Covid cases in the UK, some are worried that green-lighting travel between the UK and Malta could pose a threat to the generally stable Covid situation Malta has reached.

Although Malta was left off of the UK’s green list for travel last month, the island is expected to make it on the list this Thursday. The UK’s newspaper The Independent has listed Malta as a “prime candidate” to make it on the UK green travel list, while The Express has listed Malta among a number of other countries that “are doing better than others in terms of Covid cases”.

Should Malta make it on to the green list, British residents returning from Malta will not be required to quarantine upon arrival, but must take a Covid-19 test within the first two days of arrival.

Regarding this matter, Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci has said that the health authorities and European medical authorities are closely monitoring the situation in the UK, and will react accordingly if required.

This newsroom spoke to President of MAM Martin Balzan to ask about these concerns, to which he said that he agrees with the stance that health authorities have taken, and Malta should “wait and see how the situation develops” before taking any decisions on whether to restrict access to the UK. What is of essence, he said, is to find out if the Covid-19 vaccines are evading the Indian variant.

Balzan added that Malta being put on the UK’s green list is “not without risk”.

Health authorities announced on Monday that no one will be allowed to board a plane to travel if they do not provide a vaccine certificate or a negative PCR test.

If someone does not present either of these preliminaries, they will be required to do undergo a PCR test against a fee of €140.

Balzan said that the problem lies with this on-the-spot PCR test. “Ideally there should be none of that”, he said. “Airlines and airports should work properly”.

He added that everyone who travels should ideally be vaccinated.

“The vaccine is safer because the test could be negative today but positive tomorrow. The swab test is a snapshot. With the vaccine, you’ll be constantly protected”, he said.

Ultimately, despite the high number of cases appearing in the UK, Balzan said that the key issue is to determine if the vaccine works on the Indian variant and then move from there.

Asked if he has any idea when this point may be, Balzan said that the United Kingdom will keep Malta as well as the rest of Europe informed, however it is saying thus far that the vaccine works on the Indian variant.

“From what we can gather, it looks like the vaccine works on the Indian variant, but we’re still not completely sure”, Balzan said.