Travel advice for Portugal region of Algarve back to orange
The travel advice for the Portuguese region of Algarve has been changed from code yellow to code orange, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. That means traveling there is permitted only for essential reasons, regardless of one’s Covid-19 vaccination status.
Travelers currently in Algarve must present a vaccination certificate, recovery certificate or proof of a negative Covid-19 test upon their return to the Netherlands starting Thursday. In that case, they will be exempt from a mandatory quarantine, the ministry said.
At the same time, the Netherlands has extended its list of safe countries and regions to include another 11 countries outside the European Union. These are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Canada, Kosovo, Jordan, Moldova, Montenegro, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, the Netherlands now considers Mongolia, Namibia, Oman and Kuwait countries of ”very high risk” in relation to the ongoing coronavirus health crisis.
Public health agency RIVM is closely monitoring the situation in Portugal, as well as Cyprus, the Spanish mainland, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands, the Ministry said. Numerous people who visited these destinations recently later tested positive for the coronavirus infection, frequently with the more contagious delta variant.
RIVM previously announced that people who took a trip within 14 days of their positive coronavirus test represented about 11.1 percent of those who tested positive during the week-long period ending Tuesday morning. That included 242 people who recently made a trip to Portugal.
