The Polish-Czech border in Silesia province, southern Poland, fully reopened on Tuesday, June 30, and travelers will no longer be required to submit current coronavirus, the Czech Health Ministry said on Monday.
Earlier, people travelling to the Czech Republic from Silesia had to provide negative coronavirus tests, not older than four days, or, if positive, they were put under quarantine.
The Czech services demanded, from persons crossing the border, evidence that they had not stayed in the Silesia province and were only passing through in transit. These restrictions and border controls will expire on Tuesday.
The Czech Republic restored normal border traffic and lifted border control on internal borders of the Schengen zone in mid-June but this decision had not applied to all areas.
Poland’s Silesia was recognized as an area with a high epidemic threat and was not covered by the June 15 decision.
Poland is to open its borders with EU countries as of June 13, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced in Łochów, north of Warsaw, on Wednesday.
The PM added that as of June 16, Poland will relaunch international flights, but noted that carriers “will probably need a week, or two or three, to prepare a flight-connection network.”
“In some countries…this pandemic is still behaving in a very disturbing way, so for now we limit this decision (opening borders) to European Union countries,” Morawiecki said.
Morawiecki, visiting one of Poland’s largest styrofoam factories, said Poland needs to restore normal trade relations with the European Union countries as quickly as possible.
Poland closed its borders to foreigners in March to stop the spread of the coronavirus. However, it has been progressively loosening restictions on public life, with shopping centres, hotels and restaurants all reopening in May.
Poland has seen a recent rise in infections, mostly centred around coal mines in the south. On Monday 599 new cases were reported, a record.
As of Wednesday morning Poland, a country of around 38 million people, had reported 27,668 cases of the coronavirus and 1,191 deaths.