Austria, Croatia go red on new Czech Covid-19 travel map

Austria, Croatia, and Ireland will turn high-risk red on the new Czech travel map, valid from Monday, the Health Ministry has announced. Coming from these countries to the Czech Republic will become more difficult for unvaccinated travelers.

By contrast, Andorra, the Canary Islands, Denmark, Madeira, San Marino and Sweden will move from high-risk red to medium-risk orange on the new map. These states join Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta and Romania in the orange group.

Other countries will also change color from Monday, but these changes will not have an effect on travellers coming to the Czech Republic.

The Health Ministry updates its travel map once a week based on data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

As of Monday, the green group of European states with low Covid-19 risk will include the Azores, Hungary, Poland, and the Vatican. Outside of Europe, these states include Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, Macao, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

From Monday, Bosnia and Herzegovina will leave the green group and be listed among the dark red states with a very high risk of infection.

When arriving from the green and orange states, all travelers must fill in an arrival form; unvaccinated travelers must take an antigen or PCR test for Covid-19 within their five days after arrival, but do not have to quarantine.

From Monday, the red group of high-risk countries will include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland and Spain including the Balearic islands.

All other countries are dark-red, posing a very high risk of Covid-19.

Unvaccinated travelers arriving from red or dark-red countries must take a PCR test between 5-14 days after their return, and quarantine until the result. Those using public transport (including airlines) must also get tested before entering the Czech Republic.

The testing and quarantine requirements do not apply to those who have been fully vaccinated, or those with a certificate proving they recovered from Covid-19 in the past 180 days. Still, all travelers must fill in the arrival form.

The Foreign Ministry wrote in a press release that Slovenia has extended its permission of free transit across the country through September 19. As long as the transfer does not take more than 12 hours, no further certificates are necessary.

Fully vaccinated travelers are allowed to enter Canada as of September 7, but they must submit a PCR test no older than 72 hours and fill in a Canadian arrival form.