Please Allow My Vaccinated Husband To Attend Our Daughter’s Holy Communion, Maltese Woman Appeals
A Maltese woman has urged the authorities to update their vaccination rules so as to allow her husband to attend their daughter’s First Communion at the end of the month.
Michelle* reached out to Lovin Malta to express her concern that her husband, who has been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, won’t be able to freely travel to Malta because he was inoculated in Qatar.
The family live in Qatar but Michelle travelled to Malta with her daughter for their summer holidays to visit her mother and attend her daughter’s Holy Communion, which was postponed by a year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
However, their original plan for the husband to visit Malta in time for the ceremony on 22nd August is now up in the air as a result of the new Maltese travel rules.
Malta allows quarantine-free travel for travellers who can present a certificate that they have been fully vaccinated with a jab recognised by the European Medicines Agency.
However, it currently only recognises certificates issued by EU member states, the United Kingdom, the USA, the UAE, Turkey, Serbia, Gibraltar, Jersey, and Guernsey, and the list hasn’t been updated in two weeks.
Michelle warned that her husband, who works in Qatar, is needed at work and won’t be able to take enough vacation leave to spend two weeks in quarantine.
Therefore, unless Malta starts recognising Qatar-administered vaccines soon, her husband will have no choice but to miss their daughter’s big day.
Michelle said she tried contacting several authorities since May but none of them could give her a straight answer as to when Malta will start recognising Qatari certificates.
An email Michelle received from the health authorities yesterday
And with time ticking to her daughter’s big day, she has been left extremely frustrated at the situation.
“I’m tired of being the victim,” she said. “I have everything prepared, all the holy pictures are ready and my daughter is really sad and keeps asking me everyday if her dad will make it. My husband doesn’t want to come to Malta for a holiday but to see his family,” ”
Michelle is also concerned about whether she will be able to return to Malta herself in the future without having to go into quarantine and warned that other people are facing similar problems in Qatar, including Maltese people who were forced to miss their parents’ funerals or who haven’t seen their children for a year and a half because they don’t have enough vacation leave to stay quarantined for two weeks.
“This will happen again because the authorities aren’t listening to us,” she said. “I hope they don’t start recognising our certificates before the election to get our votes. They can forget about it then. I’m so angry at the ridiculousness of the situation, I’m living a nightmare and they can’t leave me like this.”
*Her surname has been left out to safeguard her anonymity
Are you facing a similar situation due to Malta’s limited recognition of vaccine certificates?
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