Updated | Travel from UK stopped but residents of Malta allowed to return

Updated at noon with Health Ministry statement on UK travel stop

Malta has joined a host of other European countries and stopped air travel to and from the UK in the wake of a new, more infectious varient of COVID-19, the Health Ministry said.

The decision to suspend air travel came just four hours after the same ministry announced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from the UK but no ban.

The Nationalist Party had earlier called for a ban on arrivals from the UK except residents of Malta.

The latest decision to bar air travel from the UK will come into effect as of 22 December 2020.

"Despite the suspension of flights, Maltese and other residents of Malta, who are currently in the UK, will be allowed to return to Malta but will be subjected to a PCR swab test on arrival and forced to go into mandatory quarantine," the ministry said.

The ministry said this was a temporary decision as discussions with other EU member states is ongoing for a common position on the matter.

Over the weekend, a growing number of countries within Europe barred travel from the UK in a bid to block a new strain of COVID-19 which is sweeping across Southern England. The emergence of this varient has scientists worried because it is understood to be more infectious.

France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and Bulgaria have all announced restrictions on UK travel.