A few hours before the measure's entry into force, announced on Friday, Malta finally gave up.
The island will not close its borders to people not vaccinated against Covid-19, it will however impose a quarantine on them.
"People who arrive in Malta (...) without being in possession of a vaccination certificate will be obliged to undergo a period of quarantine", announced the government of Valletta Tuesday evening in a notice.
The duration of this quarantine was not immediately known.
Malta has already required travelers arriving from certain countries classified as “red” to spend 14 days in self-isolation.
The Mediterranean island announced Friday its desire to be, as of Wednesday, the first country in the European Union to close its borders to unvaccinated travelers, hoping to curb an upsurge in new cases of Covid-19.
This announcement sparked criticism from the European Commission, which recalled that the health pass adopted by the EU (proving that a person is vaccinated, cured of the coronavirus or recently tested negative) was binding on member countries.
79% of the population is vaccinated
Health Minister Chris Fearne had appeared to shut the door completely on tourists from the United States and other nationalities by saying on Friday that "anyone arriving in Malta must present a recognized vaccination certificate: a Maltese certificate, a British certificate or a certificate of the European Union ".
The new notice published on Tuesday, which comes into force on Wednesday, however, covers many other countries including most of the United States or Japan.
Unvaccinated people residing in Malta and who were outside the country when the rules changed may have a negative PCR test, if the country concerned is on this list.
The small Mediterranean island of 500,000 inhabitants is proud to be the most vaccinated country in the EU, with 79% of the adult population having received two doses of serum.
Language stays in the sights
But Malta recorded 96 new infections on Friday, bringing the total of recorded cases to 252. A large number of cases have been detected during language stays and the government announced last week that English schools, which attract each student year of students from all over the world, would be closed from Wednesday.
Hundreds of students, including 150 Italians, are stranded in Malta and quarantined after the outbreak, according to the Foreign Ministry.
