Belgium bans tourist travel to Malta over COVID-19 surge

Belgian tourists will not be able to travel to Malta after the authorities there put the island on the red list following a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Malta was placed on the red list alongside Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, and several regions in Spain, Bulgaria and the UK.

The decision means that nobody from Belgium can travel to Malta for non-essential reasons and any Belgians returning home will be subjected to mandatory quarantine and testing.

The Belgian federal government’s foreign affairs website specifically says that tourism is non-essential travel.

This comes on the same day that Malta was taken off the UK’s green list. This move imposed a 14-day quarantine period on anyone travelling to Britain from Malta, effectively killing the tourism market from the UK.

Malta has 505 active cases of COVID-19, experiencing a sharp increase over the past few weeks.

The Maltese government is introducing a system of mandatory testing for arrivals from certain countries but the procedures and the actual countries to which this will apply are still being drawn up.