Starting with December 25, travelers from Romania will be able to enter Latvia based on more relaxed travel rules, the country being now placed on the green list of Latvian countries.
Latvia's green list now consists only of Romania and the Vatican, and travelers from these two countries will only be able to enter Latvia with a COVID-19 test before departure and will not have to be tested on arrival or quarantined.
Romania is on the green list of Latvia, along with the Vatican
The decision to add Romania to the green list was made after the country reported fewer cases of COVID-19 in recent days. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that in the last 24 hours, Romania has registered 851 new cases of COVID-19, which is several times lower compared to countries such as France, where 79.567 new cases were detected. in the last 24 hours.
However, Romania has one of the lowest vaccination rates against COVID-19, with only 40,1% of the population being fully vaccinated so far. The only EU country with a lower vaccination rate is Bulgaria, where only 27,1% of the population is fully vaccinated.
By updating the list of areas with a high epidemiological risk, the Latvian authorities have decided to keep the list of countries that pose a very high threat to public health unchanged. Part of this list consists, for the fifth week in a row, of: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique.
On the other hand, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Germany and Russia are now classified as countries that pose a special epidemiological threat due to high levels of Omicron infection.
Since Friday, December 24, travelers from these countries have been required to report negative COVID-19 tests before their trip to Latvia, regardless of their vaccination or recovery status. Only PCR and antigen tests performed 72 or 48 hours before are accepted.