Estonia Restricts Entry for Citizens of 26 Countries Until March 14, Due to COVID-19
Authorities in Estonia have restricted the freedom of movement for ten days, for citizens of 26 countries, in which the Coronavirus infection rate is higher than 150 people per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days.
According to Estonia’s government, the decision will be effective from March 8 until March 14 and has been taken in an effort to minimize the rapid transmission of the deadly virus, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
Estonia’s recent preventive measure will affect the following countries Austria, Andorra, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Latvia, Monaco, Portugal, Poland, France, Romania, Sweden, San Marino, Slovakia, Switzerland, Slovenia, the Czech Republic as well as Hungary.
Citizens of Norway, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Finland, Germany, and Denmark will be excluded from the restrictions as they have a lower rate of COVID-19 infection cases compared to other countries, in the past two weeks.
However, Estonia’s administration has emphasized that all citizens coming from the European Union, the Schengen Zone, or the Europe Economic Zone with a high infection rate during the past 14 days will also be subject to the same restrictions.
All persons wishing to enter Estonia from Latvia or Lithuania and who do not have symptoms of the illness will be eligible to enter the country, but first, they will be obliged to present a negative result of the COVID-19 test not older than 72 hours.
Lithuanians and Latvians wishing to enter Estonia for work, study, or other essential purposes will be exempted from the negative test result requirement upon their arrival.
Over 73,680 cases of COVID-19 infection have been registered in Estonia as yet, and 644 persons have died, Worldometers’ statistics reveal.
More than 55,160 persons have been totally recovered from the disease, in Estonia while there are 17,879 active cases.
In an effort to stop the further spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, Estonia continues to restrict the freedom of movement for all countries which register an upsurge in the number of infections.
Estonia previously reported that it restricted the freedom of movement for citizens of 24 countries, from March 1 until March 7, after estimating the COVID-19 situation in foreign countries.
Once the Coronavirus situation comes to an end, the border crossing procedures in order to reach Estonia will be way easier. This comes after the country’s government last month announced that it imposed the Automated Border Control System (ABC gates).
The ABC system will shorten the waiting time for all persons interested to enter the country and facilitate the border crossing process.
