Sweden issues advice against non-essential travel – announces further exceptions
The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that the country will extend its advice against non-essential travel to most countries until 1 September.
Consequently, this means that citizens of Sweden are urged to avoid travel to countries that the Council has not yet addressed.
“The international situation is still uncertain and is changing rapidly. The COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing. For this reason, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has decided to extend the advice against non-essential travel due to the pandemic. The decision is valid until 1 September 2021, ” the ministry’s statement reads.
At the same time, the same ministry decided to remove advice on travel to countries and regions that has recently been added to the European Union’s white list of countries. Since 24 June, therefore, non-essential travel for Swedish citizens will only be recommended to the following countries:
- Albania
- Lebanon
- Northern Macedonia
- Serbia
- United States
- Hong Kong
- Macao
- Taiwan
In a press release, the ministry noted that the country would continue to abolish travel advice for additional countries as soon as they are added to the EU exemption list, reports SchengenVisaInfo.com.
In previous decisions, the ministry highlighted the Council against non-essential travel to a further 43 countries:
European countries: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the Vatican City
Non-European countries: Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and the United Kingdom
“The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is working to move to a system where pandemic-related decisions to discourage travel are strictly reserved for particularly vulnerable countries / administrative regions,” allowed the ministry.
Based on figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), Sweden has so far registered 1,088,518 cases of coronavirus infection and 14,616 deaths.
As of June 25, the country has administered approximately 7,229,002 vaccine doses of COVID-19 at a rate of 71,990 doses per day over the past week. According to these figures, 438 percent of the entire population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 26.5 percent have been fully vaccinated.
Earlier, the Swedish authorities announced that travelers from the EU / EEA who cannot present a negative COVID-19 test result, a vaccination certificate or a certificate proving previous recovery from the virus will not be allowed to enter the country. Such an entry ban will apply until 31 August.