The latest updates announced by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to the travel map of Europe sees several countries turning orange and red again.
1. Several countries turn orange and red
According to the latest update, many countries and regions have turned from green to orange, meaning that the risk of infection is now considered “moderate” by the Belgian authorities.
In Greece: South Aegean, Western Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly, the Ionian Islands, Western Greece and the Peloponnese have all turned orange, whilst the region of Attica and the island of Crete are becoming red, indicating a “high” infection risk, from Wednesday 21st July.
For Denmark, the regions of Zealand, Central Jutland and North Jutland have turned orange and the Capital Region (including Copenhagen) will colour red. In France, the departments of Guadeloupe, Ile-de-France, Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur are turning orange for the first time in a long time, as well as the French capital of Paris. The Croatian area of Adriatic Croatia, which is almost the entire coastal region, is also once again turning orange.
In Spain the regions of Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha and Melilla have gone red and the whole of Spain is now a red zone for travellers from Belgium. The Portuguese Azores islands are also turning red, as well as with all of mainland Portugal, leaving only the island of Madeira an orange zone. Malta and Andorra will both turn completely red on Wednesday as well, following the Netherlands and Luxembourg which were already coloured red on Saturday.
2. Restrictions for travellers entering Belgium
Regardless of the colour code of the zone they return from, all travellers entering Belgium after at least 48 hours abroad must complete the Passenger Locator Form (PLF).
Since 1 July, colour codes no longer matter for fully vaccinated travellers or people having recently recovered from a Covid-19 infection. They do not have to get tested or quarantine upon return to Belgium, according to the Belgian authorities, and the only exception to this rule is fully vaccinated travellers returning from an area considered a “very high risk country” by Belgium. However there are currently no EU countries on this list. For those who have not been fully vaccinated or who don’t have a recovery certificate, returning from a red zone requires a test on day 1 or 2, and they must quarantine at home until they get a negative test result.
All countries outside the EU and the Schengen area are considered red zones by Belgium, except those listed below which are green travel zones:
- Albania 🇦🇱
- Australia 🇦🇺
- New Zealand 🇳🇿
- Rwanda 🇷🇼
- Singapore 🇸🇬
- South Korea 🇰🇷
- Thailand 🇹🇭
- Israel 🇮🇱
- Japan 🇯🇵
- Lebanon 🇱🇧
- Republic of North Macedonia 🇲🇰
- Serbia 🇷🇸
- United States of America 🇺🇸
- Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 🇭🇰
- Macao Special Administrative Region 🇲🇴
- Taiwan 🇹🇼
- Armenia 🇦🇲
- Azerbaijan 🇦🇿
- Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦
- Brunei Darussalam 🇧🇳
- Canada 🇨🇦
- Jordan 🇯🇴
- Kosovo 🇽🇰
- Moldova 🇲🇩
- Montenegro 🇲🇪
- Qatar 🇶🇦
- Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦
