Global travel advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be extended

The decision to extend the global travel advice has been taken on the basis of a variety of factors, including the global Covid-19 situation, uncertainty regarding how the pandemic will develop, the capacity of other countries’ health services and the travel restrictions that apply in other countries. The Government has given high priority to limiting the import of infection to Norway, and this will continue to be an important consideration moving forward as well.

‘Although we have been dealing with the pandemic for almost a year, the situation is still very far from normal and the levels of infection are changing rapidly. Therefore we have chosen to maintain our global travel advice against non-essential travel to all countries. We will continue to make exceptions for countries in the Schengen area/EEA where the rate of transmission is considered to be sufficiently low. The travel restrictions are expected to still be in place when the Easter holidays come, and people should not make plans to travel abroad at that time,’ said Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide.

Currently, exceptions to the travel advice only apply to a few areas in Finland. The Ministry advises against non-essential travel to the following countries and regions in the Schengen area/EEA: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Vatican State, and certain areas of Denmark and Finland. See the list published on the website of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The health authorities will continue to review the infection situation weekly, and the global travel advice will be updated on the basis of their findings.