The health authorities will as of Wednesday start accepting COVID-19 vaccine certificates issued in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Rwanda.

According to a notice in the government gazette, the vaccine certificates of the three countries will now be added to the list of accepted documents.

The change means anyone possessing a vaccine certificate issued by those countries will be allowed into Malta without having to undergo mandatory quarantine. 

For the certificate to be valid, the holder must be fully vaccinated by one of the four vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Those travelling to Malta with the certificate can only do so after 14 days from the last dose, as is the case with the documents of all the other countries. 

Last week, the government announced that the certificates of those from Kuwait and Singapore will also start being recognised, joining those of Malta, the EU, the UK, the UAE, the US, Serbia, Turkey, Gibraltar, Jersey and Guernsey, Qatar, Albania, Australia, Egypt, Lebanon and Canada.

Travel to Malta is restricted to those who are fully vaccinated, a decision the government took in July amid an increase in the number of imported cases. 

Although initially, only the Maltese and EU certificates were recognised, the authorities later added more countries. 

While Malta will continue to not recognise recovery certificates - a document showing that one has recovered from COVID-19 that can be used to travel in other countries - the government announced on Tuesday it would accept the certificate of those only eligible for one dose.

In some countries, people who have recovered from COVID-19 in recent months are only offered one dose of the vaccine since their natural immunity makes up for the second dose.