On Friday, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, and Cyprus placed new restrictions on Czech citizens entering their territory due to the growing number of new coronavirus cases in the east of Czechia.
According to the new measure, introduced last Saturday, Czechs will have to stay in quarantine upon arriving in Slovenia, unless they can show a negative COVID-19 test no older than 36 hours.
However, on Friday, Latvia implemented even stricter measures for people arriving from the Czech Republic. As the number of patients with COVID-19 in the last 14 days exceeded 15 people per 100,000 inhabitants, the Czech Republic was included in the so-called yellow group of countries. For Czechs coming to the country, this means that they have to stay in 14-day quarantine, which they cannot avoid even by submitting a negative COVID-19 test.
Estonia also decided to restrict the entry of Czechs into its territory. From July 6, Czechs have to stay in a two-week quarantine upon their arrival to the Baltic country.
Cyprus then moved Czechia from category A to category B, meaning that Czechs will have to show a negative COVID-19 test no older than three days.
In the case of Slovenia, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš earlier said that there was no reason for Slovenia to place Czechia among less safe countries. He pointed out that the increase in the number of coronavirus cases occurred only in the east of the country, where several hundred miners got infected in the local OKD mining company.
Slovenia has at least partially listened to the Czech Republic’s request and has returned the country to the list of safe countries since Tuesday, July 7. However, for inhabitants of the Moravian-Silesian Region, where the OKD company is located, restrictions introduced by the Slovenian government will continue to apply.
Title image: A health worker wearing protective gear takes swab samples from a tourist to test for the coronavirus, at Promahonas border crossing with Bulgaria, which is the only land border into Greece that is open on Monday, July 6, 2020. Dozens of vehicles full of Serb holidaymakers who were trapped at the Greek border overnight have been allowed to cross into Greece after a ban on the entry of people from Serbia came into effect due to a coronavirus flare-up in Serbia. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
