NL lowers Covid travel warning for 7 more countries including France, Belgium

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs lowered the coronavirus travel warning from code orange to code yellow for seven more countries, effective Thursday, June 24. From then, recreational travel to these countries will again be possible. The warning for the Portuguese capital of Lisbon is escalating to code orange.

France, Belgium except for the Brussels-Capital region, Estonia, Greece except for Athens, the Sjeverna Hrvatska region in Croatia, Lithuania, and Slovenia will all move to code yellow on Thursday. 

Netherlands residents are allowed to travel to countries and regions with a code yellow coronavirus warning as long as they are aware of and adhere to the extra measures in place in those countries. They do not have to get tested for the virus upon their return to the Netherlands, and do not have to quarantine. 

Due to the spread of the believed to be more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus in Lisbon, the Ministry is escalating the travel warning for the Portuguese capital to code orange from Thursday. This means that recreational travel to the area is strongly discouraged. Travelers returning from Lisbon must show a negative coronavirus test when they come back, and quarantine at home upon their arrival. The rest of Portugal and the Azores and Madeira remain on code yellow.

Last week, public health institute RIVM raised concerns about graduating secondary school students getting the coronavirus while vacationing together after their final exams. Portugal is one of the popular destinations for these traditional vacations. 

The Ministry also decided to keep Spain, a popular vacation destination for travelers from the Netherlands, on code orange. "Although the corona figures in the holiday country are slowly improving, they are unfortunately not good enough yet," the Ministry said.