Malta has banned flights and sea voyages to and from Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain with immediate effect as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

“We are following developments very closely and it has become clear that the rate of transmission in those four countries has grown exponentially,” Prime Minister Robert Abela said. “We have therefore decided to stop flights to those four countries by sea and plane.”

Trade will not be impacted as a result of these measures and special arrangements will be made for residents of Malta to return home.

He said that, as of today, Maltese people who return from those four countries, as well as those who returned from Italy in the past two weeks, should be subjected to mandatory quarantine for 14 days and that those who disobey will be subjected to a fine of €1,000. He said all quarantine will be enforced with regular police spot checks.

The fine will apply for every breach, meaning if you are caught breaching quarantine 10 times in one day, you will be fined a total of €10,000.