Italy, Sweden, and Malta turn dark red on Czech travel map

The conditions of return to the Czech Republic from selected European countries will toughen for unvaccinated Czechs as of Monday, the Health Ministry told ČTK, naming Italy, Sweden, and Malta as the countries switching to a higher COVID risk category on the Czech traveler's map. The tougher restrictions come in reaction to the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Those returning from Romania, on the contrary, will see the conditions of Czech entry softened.

The Health Ministry updates the traveler's map every week based on data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Due to to the Omicron incidence, Italy, Malta, and Sweden, now in the red group of high-risk countries, will newly appear in the highest-risk dark red group of states on the traveler's map.

Latvia, Hungary, Austria will newly appear in the high-risk red group, instead of the current dark red, and Romania will move from the orange moderate-risk group to the green group of countries posing a low risk of COVID infection. The Azores, now orange, will appear in the red group as of Monday.

Apart from Romania, the Vatican is the only European country in the green group, along with the non-European states of Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Chile, Indonesia, Colombia, South Korea, Canada, Qatar, Kuwait, Macao, New Zealand, Peru, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, and Uruguay.

People arriving from the green and orange states have been obliged to undergo a Covid test in five days following their Czech entry at the latest.

The red countries posing a high risk of infection will be Bulgaria, Finland, and newly also Latvia, Hungary, Austria, and the Azores.

The dark red group of countries showing a very high risk will newly include Italy, Malta, and Sweden, which will join Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, France, Iceland, Ireland, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Greece, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Madeira, the Canary and Balearic Islands and the other states outside the EU.

The people arriving from red or dark-red countries have to undergo a PCR test between the fifth and 14th day after their return and the person has to wear a respirator outside their home pending the test result. Those using public transport have to get tested even before entering the Czech Republic. On return from all countries, travelers have to submit their passenger locator form, if they do not use individual transport such as their own car.

The conditions for travelers' return, except for selected south African states, do not apply to the people whose vaccination was completed at least two weeks ago or who recovered from Covid-19 in the past 180 days. They, nevertheless, also have to fill in the passenger locator form.

The Health Ministry has recommended that people refrain from traveling amid the COVID-19 pandemic.