A father wants the health authorities to reconsider quarantine rules after being told that his three-year-old son must either spend two weeks in a quarantine hotel or be separated from his mother.

Alexandr Biketov wants his wife, Tatiana, and son, Nikita, to travel from Russia to Malta so that the family can live together again.

As the Ukrainian father has Maltese residency, he hoped they could quarantine as a family in the Gżira apartment he has rented for the last three years.

But he says his request was turned down since his wife and son are not residents.

Instead, the mother and son are being asked to spend two weeks in isolation at a quarantine hotel and pay €100 a night.

Or he can keep the child at home with him, while his wife stays in the hotel, at the same cost.

“Anyone with young children knows how stressful it is to separate a child from their mother,” Alexandr told Times of Malta.

“I cannot understand the absurdity of these decisions… keeping in mind my son has not lived with me for three years.”

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Alexandr has only been able to visit his family in Russia twice in the last two years.

Under the current travel rules, anyone travelling from a red-listed country, such as Russia, does not have to quarantine as long as they have a recognised certificate for a vaccine approved by Europe’s medicines watchdog.

But while Alexandr’s wife is fully vaccinated, she was administered the Sputnik jab, which is not on the approved list, meaning she must quarantine.

However, the guidelines also say parents who are residents can apply for their minor children to quarantine at an alternative address to the expensive quarantine hotels.

'Rules don't make sense'

In his latest correspondence with the COVID-19 public health response team, seen by Times of Malta, Alexandr is asked to submit an application

“individually for your child and another one for your wife”.

He is asked to “not include one another as travel companions, so that we can issue authorisation accordingly”.

He says the rules do not make sense.

“Since I came to Malta in February 2019, I have leased an apartment big enough to take in my family as the plan was always for them to move to Malta after me,” he said

“This was delayed because of the pandemic but now we decided not to wait any longer. I can’t understand why we are not being allowed to quarantine in the apartment that will be our home”.

He stressed that he provided all the documentation to prove they are a family and to prove his apartment lease.

“We are married and my son grew up without his father. Already too much time has passed. I want to be around for my son and wife… We agree that the whole family will quarantine at home, at the place of residence. That’s why I submitted all the documents. But they refused,” he said.

Questions have been sent to the health ministry.