Malta is the only EU country that does not accept COVID recovery certificates for entry into the country, a review by Times of Malta has found.
Since July, Europe has been using the EU Digital COVID Certificate (formerly called Digital Green Certificate) to facilitate safe free movement while the bloc deals with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The certificates serve as proof that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result or has recovered from past infection.
Countries are free to decide whether to make full use of the three certificates or, as in Malta’s case, just one. The Maltese authorities only recognise the vaccine part of the certificate, meaning only those who are fully vaccinated are allowed in.
Despite Malta being alone in this decision, public health chief Charmaine Gauci defended the authorities’ position, insisting the island could not afford to be taking “additional risks”.
“Yes, we do have more stringent measures than others. We want to protect our country as much as possible,” she said.
“If you look at our health system, we have to protect this as much as we can and so we cannot take additional risks.
“We have one main state hospital, so we need to be sure to keep the numbers as low as possible.”
The superintendent of public health also argued that immunity from natural infection is less than that acquired through vaccination.
“When you have your own natural infection, this does not give as much immunity as the vaccine, which we know is tailor-made so that it can actually boost immunity to the maximum,” Gauci said.
“This is the case with COVID-19. The immunity you build with the infection is less strong than that of the vaccine,” she added.
Gauci said, however, that although the Maltese authorities do not recognise recovery certificates, foreigners who get infected while in Malta are still being issued one in case they need to use it while back home.
The decision to not recognise recovery certificates recently came under fire by Malta International Airport CEO Alan Borg, who said this was impacting tourism’s recovery.