Government Passes Travel Traffic Lights, Should Be Updated Once Every Two Weeks
Bratislava, May 26 (TASR) – The Cabinet passed a travel traffic lights scheme at its session on Wednesday.
The countries in it have been allocated a colour based on their level of risk – green, including EU countries and countries with favourable epidemiological situations; red – i.e. the countries with unfavourable epidemiological situations; and black, countries to which the ministry doesn’t recommend that people should travel. The travel traffic lights should be updated once every two weeks, or more frequently in individual cases. They will take effect as of May 31.
“The main goal of the travel traffic lights is to allow people to enjoy relatively safe travel abroad and concurrently to minimise the influx of new infections, or new coronavirus mutations,” stated the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
According to the ministry, the main idea when drafting the travel traffic lights was that EU-member states were considered to be a complete and indivisible epidemiological unit. The scheme’s authors accepted the higher risk stemming from this, compensating for it with tougher arrangements for other countries. This means that there is no amber in the travel traffic lights.
After returning from a green country, people must undergo 14-day quarantine, which can be ended by a negative PCR test upon arrival. People who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, who have overcome the disease within the past 180 days and children up to 18 years are exempted from mandatory self-isolation.
After their return from a red country, people will have to undergo 14-day quarantine that can be ended by a negative PCR test, but not earlier than on the eighth day.
After returning from a black country, a 14-day quarantine period will apply regardless of the result of the test. The Public Health Authority will issue more detailed exemptions for red and black countries, mainly for cross-border commuters, via regulations.
The list of green countries currently includes EU countries, Australia, China, Greenland, Iceland, Israel, Macao, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
The red countries include: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Cuba, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mongolia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the USA and Uzbekistan.
All other countries found neither on the green, nor the red list, have been defined as black.
