Latvia, Estonia withdraw Czech Republic from safe countries list

Prague, July 25 (CTK) – Latvia and Estonia have withdrawn the Czech Republic from their lists of safe countries due to the growing number of coronavirus cases here, the Czech Foreign Ministry has told journalists.

As a result, Czechs must enter a two-week quarantine when traveling to these countries.

By contrast, the Czech Republic will list Sweden as a low-risk country as of Monday.

Latvia and Estonia listed the Czech Republic among medium-risk countries in early July. However, they reversed their decision on Tuesday and returned the Czech Republic to the safe countries list on July 21.

The Baltic countries update their lists at the end of each week.

Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek (Social Democrats, CSSD) said there was the complication that individual EU countries have a different coefficient under which the countries are listed.

“Some of them have the limit of 10 cases per 100,000 population, other of 50. I want to discuss the unification or at least becoming close to the limit for the whole EU with my counterparts from the EU,” he added.

As of Monday, all EU countries will be listed as safe by the Czech Republic.

However, foreign workers arriving from Sweden and Luxembourg will newly have to present a negative coronavirus test.

The same rule is in force for the workers from Romania, Bulgaria, and Portugal.

Another 281 COVID-19 cases were recorded on Friday, the highest number since the end of June, according to data released by the Czech Health Ministry Saturday morning.