Sweden in turn announced Wednesday, December 22 a restriction of entry conditions to its territory for travelers from the European Union, who will have from December 28 to present a negative Covid test even if they are vaccinated.
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Seven other EU countries - Portugal, Ireland, Cyprus, Latvia, Italy, Greece and Austria - already require a negative test even for those vaccinated from the EU, and Finland announced on Tuesday evening that it would do the same. "
All travelers will be required to test negative for Covid-19 upon arrival in Sweden, regardless of the country from which they arrive,
" the Swedish government said in a statement. "
This measure applies even when you are vaccinated or recovered from the Covid
", specifies Stockholm. However, children under 12 and travelers of Swedish nationality or residing in Sweden are not affected by this obligation.
This decision is due to the "
high presence of Covid-19 across the world and the accelerated spread of the Omicron variant
", underlines the executive.
According to the European Commission, the requirement of a negative test in the EU must be subject to notice, be time-bound and proportionate.
"
We understand that some Member States are taking action, but (...) we are not really convinced that for travel it is very useful, we still think that the certificate is the element which should be sufficient
", said the curator Didier Reynders.
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On Tuesday, the Commission also set at nine months, after a first complete vaccination, the period of validity of the vaccine certificate against Covid-19 for travel in the Union, in order to encourage recalls.