Sweden removes entry ban for all travelers from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain
From next Tuesday, October 19, travelers from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain can enter Sweden without restrictions, regardless of vaccination status, the Swedish Ministry of Justice has announced.
In a press release published on Friday, 15 October, the Ministry states that the decision has been taken in accordance with the Council of the European Union’s latest recommendation to EU Member States to lift the travel ban for these two countries.
The Council added these two third countries to its list of epidemiologically safe third countries on 8 October, after both reported a reduction in the number of covid-19 cases.
Data from the World Health Organization show that the frequency of recently reported cases in the last seven days per 100,000 inhabitants per Bahrain is 23.74 and 9.05 for the UAE. Since the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, the UAE, home to 9.89 million people, has registered 738.268 cases, while Bahrain, which has a population of 1.702 million, has marked 275,862 COVID-19 cases.
“As a result of today’s decision, residents of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are exempted from the entry ban solely on the grounds that they reside there. Other exemptions from the entry ban will continue to apply to residents of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates“, Explains the ministry.
It also notes that despite the exemption from entry, travelers from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain must still show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test result when entering Sweden.
Sweden first announced its ban on travel outside the block on 19 March 2020. The ban was initially intended to last for 30 days, but it has been extended continuously due to the COVID-19 situation.
The existing ban expires on October 31.
Earlier this month, on October 1, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that authorities in Sweden added Chile, Kuwait and Rwanda to the list of countries from which travelers can come without restrictions.
At the same time, Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina have been removed from the list, which means that travelers from these two countries can now only enter Sweden if they fall into one of the categories that are exempt from the entry ban.
Later, from 11 October, British citizens who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 have been allowed to enter Sweden without restrictions for non-essential purposes.
The country is currently in the process of reopening its doors to travel after vaccinating the majority of its adult population. Data from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show that 85.2 percent of the adult population in Sweden has received at least the first dose of a COVID-9 vaccine, while 80.8 percent of the adult population is already completely vaccinated.
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