Finns Urged to Avoid Non-Essential Travel to Portugal, Ireland, UK, Brazil & South Africa

The Finnish Government has urged its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Portugal, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa due to the rapid spread of new contagious variants of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ decision comes following the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare recommendations, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

“In accordance with the THL recommendation and to prevent the spread of the new virus variants to Finland, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urges to avoid all travel to Brazil, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa, and the United Kingdom,” the statement published by Finland’s MFA reads.

The recent decision imposed by Finland’s Government does not affect the countries for which the Finnish authorities have already lifted the entry restrictions and other bans.

Besides, citizens of Finland will be permitted to leave Finland if there is no legal impediment to this process. They also have the right to always return to Finland.

As yet, Finland has registered a total of 45,784 COVID-19 cases of infections, while 684 persons have died, based on Wroldometers’s statistics.

The figures reveal that 31,000 persons have been recovered from the deadly virus in Finland, while there are 14,100 active cases.

On February 1, the Estonian and Finnish COVID-19 working groups talked about new ideas to restore labor migration between the countries after Finland’s additional entry restrictions were introduced on January 27.

Finland’s authorities recently imposed restrictions in a bid to prevent the further spread of the new variants of the Coronavirus pandemic, identified in many international countries, including those in the EU.

Finland’s Government previously clarified that essential trips of work would be considered only work that is essential for society’s functioning, and security of supply is deemed to be necessary.