On Monday, November 9, new restrictions on travelling to the country came into effect. The Czech Republic has thus joined other EU countries that have also introduced the so-called Coronavirus Traffic Light System mapping the epidemiological situation in the European Union. All EU countries are marked orange, majority of them are, however, marked red.
EU-wide Restrictions on Travelling
On Monday, November 9 new EU-wide restrictions on travelling based on the so-called Coronavirus Traffic Light System came into effect as previously announced by the Minister of the Foreign Affairs, Tomáš Petříček. According to the Traffic Light System, Countries are divided into three categories depending on their current epidemiological situation like it was in case of national Traffic Light Systems.
The categories are defined as follows:
- Green: Countries where a high number of COVID-19 tests are performed and in the last two weeks saw a rise of less than 25 new COVID-19 cases per 100 000 inhabitants per day. People travelling from these countries can arrive in the Czech Republic without submitting a form and undergoing a PCR test or a mandatory quarantine.
- Orange: Countries that in the last two weeks saw a rise of less than 250 new COVID-19 cases per 100 000 inhabitants per day and where positive COVID-19 tests make up over 4 percent of all the tests performed. People arriving from these countries can arrive in the Czech Republic without submitting a form to a Public Health Office. Foreigners arriving in the Czech Republic for work or education have to undergo a PCR test before entering their workplace or schools and universities. This category includes: Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greece and Cyprus.
- Red: Countries that saw a rise of over 250 new COVID-19 cases per 100 000 inhabitants per day and where positive COVID-19 tests make up over 4 percent of all the tests performed. People arriving in the Czech Republic from these countries (both foreigners and Czech citizens) have to submit a form before their arrival and undergo a PCR test or a mandatory quarantine.
People coming from non-EU countries still aren’t allowed to enter the Czech Republic unless they belong to one of the exceptions. The only non-EU countries from which people can arrive in the Czech Republic without a negative test or a quarantine are Singapore, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Thailand and Australia.
A New Website Mapping the Current Situation
Just a few days ago, a new website mapping the current epidemiological situation and restrictions was launched. It includes all important information in one place for a better understanding. A lot of information is available to the public on websites of different ministries, however, it is often difficult to gather every single piece of information.
An English version of the website is also available, though it currently doesn’t include translations of all the information available on the Czech version of the website. Right now the portal is in its beta form and so it may undergo some changes in the future.
Let us know and get your residence permit as soon as possible to be safe in the future in case the pandemic indeed returns in full force. Having a residence permit is the best way of making sure you’ll be able to return to the Czech Republic even if the borders are closed again.
If you don’t want to miss out on any important news, subscribe to our special autumn newsletter mapping not only the current coronavirus situation, and don’t forget to check this blog.
Sources of the information: MVČR, MZČR, denik.cz and covid.gov.cz
Source of the featured photo: unsplash.com
