Three countries have decided to tighten measures for Czech citizens due to the epidemiological situation in the Czech Republic as the daily increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks is about 200, much more than at the beginning of July.
During Thursday night, Slovenia became the latest country to change the rules for Czechs and, suddenly, put the Czech Republic on the list of medium-risk countries.
Upon entering the country, a two-week quarantine is mandatory for Czech citizens. If they only need to pass through the country, this restriction does not apply to them, but the transit must not exceed 12 hours, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on its website.
On Thursday, Norway also imposed restrictions on the Czechs – they have to spend ten days in quarantine after entering the Scandinavian country. Oslo placed Czechia on the traffic-light system “red” list together with France, Switzerland, and Monaco. Norwegians are also advised to travel to these four countries only when necessary.
Currently, Norway allows free travel to people from countries that have registered less than 20 coronavirus cases per 100,000 population in the last two weeks, which is not the case for the Czech Republic.
This week, Ukraine also decided to include Czechia among countries with an unfavorable epidemiological situation. Thus, upon their arrival in Ukraine, Czechs have to submit a negative coronavirus test or stay in quarantine.
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Increasing coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic are likely to result in Norway applying travel restrictions to the country this week.
The move was signalled on Monday by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), which published similar notifications in July before restrictions were applied to travellers from Spain and Belgium.
Norway’s health authorities designated EEA and Schengen countries as ‘green’ or ‘red’ depending on current infection rates. To remain ‘green’, the figure must be under 20 infections per 100,000 residents in total over the past two weeks.
Once a country is ‘red’, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises against travel that is not strictly necessary to that country, and self-quarantine is required for travellers returning or arriving from it. This also means people cannot travel from ‘red’ countries to Norway for tourism.
NIPH said on Monday that it would recommend travel advisories for the Czech Republic to be changed to ‘red’ at the next update scheduled for later this week, unless any change in the situation occurs in the meantime.
The final decision on travel advice is taken by the government based on NIPH assessments.
The Czech Republic has exceeded the 20 per 100,000 resident infections threshold, resulting in the Norwegian public health authority’s forthcoming recommendation.
“New figures show that the Czech Republic is at 26.8 new Covid-19 infections per 100,000 residents for the last 14 days, and the trend is increasing. We are therefore now notifying that, unless the situation changes, NIPH will recommend that the Czech Republic become ‘red’ country and thereby encompassed by quarantine rules,” NIPH head of department Line Vold said in the statement.
Updated quarantine rules and travel advice normally comes into effect at midnight on Friday.
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