Malta to open to vaccinated travellers in June

Malta plans to fully open in June for all countries, as long as travellers have proof of vaccination.

Malta is currently open to tourists, but is categorising countries as green, amber or red.  It plans to fully open in June for all countries as long as they have proof of vaccination.

Travellers from amber list countries require a negative PCR test unless people have been fully vaccinated over 14 days earlier-  with no quarantine. Red list countries need to present a negative PCR test issued no later than 10 days from arrival.

Green list countries can enter Malta with no Covid-related restrictions, no mandatory tests, and no required quarantines.

At time of writing, there are no green countries on the list, and the amber list had over 50 countries including all of the European Union, USA, UAE, Russia and China, but not the UK.

A post-pandemic tourism recovery plan includes a proposal to offer a bonus of €200 to visitors staying for at least three days.

Medical tourism has virtually halted in recent years, for reasons other than the pandemic. The few medical tourists to the country come from the UK, France and Italy, although health tourism is more popular, with a much wider customer base.

In 2017, the government of Malta entered into a 30-year public-private partnership agreement for capital investment and management responsibility for three hospitals with an international profit-making healthcare organisation.  It included plans to offer treatment to both locals and medical tourists.

The partnership has however failed, and the healthcare company is demanding that either the government sells all three hospitals to it, or pays it more. Vitals Global Healthcare that was bought by Steward Health Care, a sister company, is involved in criminal investigations amid claims of fraud, money laundering, collusion with government officials, corruption and murder.

A court case is seeking to have the 30-year deal to privatise St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo General Hospitals revoked. Applications for major works at the three privatised state hospitals are currently suspended, and the court case has a long list of promises not met. The case is ongoing.