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Greece extends air travel restrictions, decreases quarantine days, increases children’s age

Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced on Sunday the extension of an emergency directive (notam) on air travel restrictions to prevent the spread of Covid-19, The travel restrictions are extended until 6:00 on Monday, June 14, 2021. The new notam decreases the period of quarantine for arriving travelers tested positive with Rapid test and increases the age of children that need Covid-documents to 6.

This forbids the entry into Greece of third-country nationals arriving by air but not EU and Schengen area nationals, their spouses or civil partners and their minor children.

Exempted from the ban are passengers traveling for essential reasons and the permanent residents of the following 22 countries:

Australia, North Macedonia, United Arab Emirates, United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, Belarus, Bahrain, New Zealand, South Korea, Qatar, China, Kuwait, Ukraine, Rwanda, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Thailand and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was added on the list last week.

All passengers arriving in Greece must complete and submit a Passenger Locator Form online at https://travel.gov.gr that provides their contact data in the country.

All travellers over the age of 6 entering the country must present a certificate issued by a public authority or certified laboratory of either vaccination against Covid, a negative PCR test or recovery from the virus. The vaccination certificate must be be written in Greek, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish or Russian and show that all required doses of the vaccine were taken 14 days before arrival, listing the person’s name as written on their passport, the type of vaccine given, the number of doses and vaccination dates. The negative PCR test must be taken up to 72 hours before arrival in Greece while certification of recovery from the disease is valid from two until nine months from the date of the illness confirmation.

The change for children over 6 (instead of 5 as it was stated in the previous notem) goes into effect from Monday, June 7, 2021.

All passengers arriving from abroad may be subjected to random tests for Covid-19, which are mandatory, and will have to go into quarantine for 10 days if found positive. If the arriving passenger is inoculated and the rapid test shows “positive” the quarantine is for 7 days. These changes are according to latest instructions by European ECDC.

In both cases (10 or 7 days quarantine) people will have to undergo a PCR test on the last day of quarantine.

Similar restrictions apply to those taking domestic flights to the Greek islands, though travel is also allowed on the basis a negative rapid test or self test taken up to 24 hours beforehand and uploaded on the relevant website – https://self-testing.gov.gr/covid19-self-test-print.pdf  available in Greek and English. All passengers and crew are obliged to wear masks at all times in the airport and on the aircraft, and comply with all other safety rules.

CAA Statement in Greek here.

 

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5 comments

  1. It is well known in medical research that the Coronavirus respects the Schengen zone, and would not dare to infect anyone in it when they were about to travel on holiday. Outside of Schengen, the virus does not show any sensitivity at all to political agreements and border arrangements. It is, therefore, perfectly in line with scientific knowledge that people from outside Schengen should be considered as likely to be transmit the virus.

    Are you all so stupid that you cannot see the nonsense that is going on here?

  2. Melanie Jane Alderson

    With regard to testing of children, does “over 6” mean 7 and over and that a child of 6 years of age is exempt?

  3. SandalenMitSocken

    The obligation to present a negative test for (small) children will deter many tourists, on the one hand because of the high costs and on the other hand because of the inconvenience. I hope that this nonsensical regulation will be repealed by July. It has now been proven in large numbers that small children have hardly contributed to the pandemic.