People travelling from Sweden to Malta will no longer have to go into quarantine after the island added the Scandinavian country to its travel ‘green’ list.

Unlike most European countries, Sweden didn’t go into lockdown when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, instead prohibiting large public gatherings and encouraging remote working while allowing schools and businesses to remain open.

Sweden’s relatively high COVID-19 death rate at the start of the year led to significant criticism, and Malta left it off its safe travel list when it reopened its airport earlier this year.

However, its rate of new cases and deaths has since slowed down significantly, prompting Malta’s health authorities to declare that travel from there to here is safe.

Malta also has an ‘amber list’ of countries from which travellers must need to produce a negative COVID-19 swab test, taken at least 72 hours before arriving on the island. As of now, the counties include Romania, Tunisia and Czechia, as well as Paris and Marseille in France, and Barcelona, Madrid and Girona in Spain.

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