Expats in Russia ask Malta to accept Sputnik certificate

Maltese expats in Russia are calling on health authorities to start accepting the Sputnik vaccination certificate and scrap the quarantine system for Maltese who took the Sputnik jab.

The Maltese in Russia Association (MiRA) is asking the Superintendent of Public Health to accept the Sputnik certificate or allow Maltese from Russia to visit on the basis of a PCR test.

It is further requesting Russia’s removal from Malta’s list of dark red countries, and to scrap the quarantine system for those vaccinated with Sputnik, while allowing unvaccinated Maltese from Russia to quarantine at home.

According to MiRA, European countries such as Greece and Cyprus are accepting tourists vaccinated with Sputnik, while some EU countries have bilateral deals in place to mutually recognise national vaccination certificates.

In fact, Malta currently recognises digital vaccine certificates from the EU, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Gibraltar, Jersey, Guernsey, Qatar, Albania, Australia, the United States of America, Egypt and Lebanon.

“Malta does not have to recognise the Sputnik vaccine, but Malta can and should recognise the Sputnik vaccination certificate, especially of Maltese nationals in Russia,” the association said.

With Russia still on Malta’s dark red list of countries, MiRA argue that countries with much higher incidence rates of COVID-19 per capita are not on the dark red list, with Russia’s incidence rate on par with that of Malta.

While Malta’s incidence rate translates to 610 per million population, the incidence rate in Russia currently stands at 873 per million over last week.

“We are not questioning why countries with such high incidence rates of COVID per capita, more than five times what Russia has, are not themselves on the dark red list. But we believe it is high time that Russia is removed from the dark red list of countries.”

MiRA also finds fault with Malta’s quarantine system, pointing out that authorities have given several exemptions to people travelling in and out of Russia, including Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo and Malta’s football team.

“Moreover, the amount of quarantine hotel space is limited, and people are being made to share rooms with total strangers. Such a method defeats the scope of the same quarantine system.”