Portugal to Impose New Travel Rules
EU countries reached a joint agreement to lift additional restrictions on movement for persons who hold a valid COVID-19 vaccination document that proves they have been vaccinated or recovered from the virus, AtoZSerwisPlus.pt reports.
According to Portugal News, a source from the office of the Minister of International Administration told Lusa agency, “as always; the Government will consider possible adjustments to the rules in force in the national legal framework, taking into account the content of this recommendation and also the evolution of the epidemiological situation in Portugal”.
The Council of the EU introduced a new recommendation to ease the travel process amid the COVID-19 situation based on which Coronavirus measures should be applied considering passenger health rather than the epidemiological situation of their country of departure, except for high-risk countries.
The decision means that passengers from other countries will face milder entry rules when travelling to EU countries, provided they have completed their immunization process against the virus.
The Council of the EU adopted such a recommendation on January 25, while the same will become effective on February 1.
“This means that a traveller’s COVID-19 vaccination, test, or recovery status, as evidenced by a valid EU digital COVID certificate, should be the key determinant. A person-based approach will substantially simplify the applicable rules and will provide additional clarity and predictability to travellers,” the Council of the EU pointed out.
In addition, on the same day, February 1, the Member States will shorten the validity of vaccination documents to 270 days.
Since December 1, 2021, all travellers from other countries reaching Portugal are obliged to present a negative rest or recovery document upon their arrival.
Previously Portugal’s Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) stressed that over 2,500 travellers faced fines during the last two months while attempting to reach Portugal without presenting a negative COVID-19 test.
Based on the figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), Portugal recorded a total of 2,254,583 cases of COVID-19 infection and 19,613 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The same source shows that Portugal registered over 347,600 cases of infection in the last seven days, while 279 people have died due to the virus.
Despite the current COVID-19 situation, the figures provided by the European statistics provider, Eurostat, showed that Portugal had a better travel performance in December compared to other EU countries.
