Travellers arriving from China need to produce a negative Covid-19 rapid antigen test to be allowed into Malta as from Monday.

The new provision was announced in a legal notice published by the Superintendent of Public Health.

The test, according to the notice, must have been performed not more than 48 hours prior to arrival. Children younger than 11 do not need to produce a test.

The restriction was introduced after a recent surge in the number of cases being registered in China, which prompted other countries such as the US, Japan, Italy, the UK and Spain to also introduce restrictions on travellers from China.

It is the first time since July that Malat introduced restrictions at its borders.

The notice follows a meeting of European Union experts on Wednesday which “strongly encouraged” EU countries to demand COVID tests from passengers coming from China.