Malta will end its blanket rule obliging residents from ‘dark red’ countries to quarantine at a hotel as of Friday, Health Minister Chris Fearne has announced.

At a press conference, he said these people will be allowed to quarantine at home so long as they have a vaccine certificate and all their household members are vaccinated too. He added the hotel quarantine will still apply to people from households of more than five people, including the traveller.

Fearne also said Malta will update its ‘dark red’ list of countries in the coming days to ensure it includes countries at risk of the so-called Mu variant, rather than the Delta variant, which he said has now spread everywhere.

He said this will mean Malta will stop classifying Russia and India as ‘dark red’ countries.

“We can’t allow the fear of the pandemic to paralyse us; it’s going to be with us for the long-term so we must learn to live with it,” Fearne said.

“Learning to live with it doesn’t mean we should ignore all the measures, but that we should keep using science to minimise the risk to public health as much as possible and use science to get closer to normality. We must be courageous to understand it is with us for the long-term and we must take the necessary steps.”

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