COVID-19. Germany removes Portugal from the red list

The German government will remove Portugal from the red list of tourist destinations. The decision should be implemented as of next Wednesday, following the announcement made by the Robert Koch Institute on Monday. With the measure coming into effect, which also includes the United Kingdom, Russia, India and Nepal, travelers who have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 traveling to Portugal will not be forced to comply with quarantine upon their return to Germany.

With Portugal included in the red list, German tourists who decided to travel to Portugal were required to self-quarantine for 14 days on the way home, even if they had been vaccinated, recovered from the disease or tested negative for coronavirus. However, some restrictions still apply. Tourists who have not been vaccinated will have to quarantine for ten days, a period that can be shortened to five days if the test result is negative.

Portugal’s entry into the red list, which was forced to cancel tourist flows between the two countries, was assumed by the Berlin authorities with the aim of stopping the spread of the delta variable, which pervades Portuguese territory. The ban on entry to flights at airports in Germany has also been lifted for the United Kingdom and India, as well as Portugal.

Eleven countries will continue to be on the red list for the new variant: Brazil, Mozambique, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Uruguay. On Thursday last week, Germany already admitted Portugal’s downgrade. The German ban on travel to Portugal is the only one in the European Union when the digital certificate for the covid-19 virus comes into effect.

The European Commission had deemed the ban on non-essential travel to Portugal adopted by Germany “not entirely in line” with what was recommended by Brussels, and a source in the Lusa Community Executive said it would be analyzed if the measure was “proportionate”. “.