Fully-vaccinated Czech tourists can visit Croatia for one year after final dose

Tourists from the Czech Republic who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 may travel to Croatia without restriction for up to one year since their final vaccine dose, Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek tweeted on Saturday.

The Croatian government approved the new regulation this weekend. Previously, Croatia acknowledged a vaccine validity of 270 days.

Croatia is by far the most popular summer destination for Czech tourists. This year, more than 750,000 tourists from the Czech Republic went to Croatia, which is almost the same number as before the Covid-19 pandemic. Most Czechs travel to Croatia by car or train.

Over the summer, Czech diplomacy established special consulate offices in Split and Rijeka in Croatia. Joint police patrols consisting of Croatian and Czech officers were deployed at the most frequented local seaside resorts.

Croatia is currently in the red category of countries posing a high risk of Covid-19 infection on the Czech travel map issued by the Health Ministry every week based on data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

As of Monday, Bulgaria, Belgium, Ireland, Croatia, Cyprus, Norway, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Romania, Greece and Switzerland are also listed as high-risk red along with Croatia.

Travelers without proof of vaccination or recovery coming to the Czech Republic from red or dark-red countries must take a PCR test between 5-14 days of their arrival, and have to stay in quarantine pending the test result. Those using public transport (including airlines) must also provide a negative test even before entering the Czech Republic.

The return conditions do not apply to those who have completed their Covid-19 vaccination or have a certificate proving that they have recovered from Covid-19 in the past 180 days.

All travelers must also fill in an arrival form when entering the Czech Republic, regardless of where they are coming from.

The Health Ministry divides countries on its map according to the risk of the coronavirus infection into the the dark red (very high risk), red (high risk), orange (medium risk) and green (low risk) zones.

Almost six million people have completed their vaccination against Covid-19 in the Czech Republic, which has a population of about 10.7 million.

On Friday, Croatia reported 1,061 new coronavirus cases and eight Covid-related deaths. At present, there are about 7,100 active Covid-19 cases in the country, which has a population of about four million people, and 738 patients are hospitalized. About half of Croatia's adult adult population is fully vaccinated against the virus.