Poland, Netherlands turn high-risk red on Czech Republic's latest Covid-19 travel map

Travelers without proof of vaccination or recovery coming to the Czech Republic from the Netherlands, Poland, and Cyprus will face tightened restrictions as of Monday. These countries will move from medium-risk orange to high-risk red on the latest Covid-19 travel map released by the Czech Health Ministry.

There will be additional color changes among other countries, but they will not affect restrictions on arrival to the Czech Republic.

The Health Ministry updates its travel map every week based on data provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

As of Monday, Italy, Madeira, Malta, Spain, the Vatican, and the Canary Islands will listed among Europe's green countries a low risk of Covid-19. Outside of Europe, Australia, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Chile, South Korea, Jordan, Canada, Qatar, Kuwait, Macao, New Zealand, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan and Uruguay will be low-risk green.

Orange countries with a medium risk of Covid-19 will include Andorra, Denmark, France, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland, the Balearic Islands and Azores.

On return from green and orange countries, travelers without proof of vaccination or recovery must either provide a negative Covid-19 test before entering the Czech Republic, or take an antigen or PCR test within five days of their arrival.

From Monday, red countries with a high risk of infection will include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia, as well as all countries outside the EU not listed in green, are considered dark red with a very high risk of Covid-19.

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

At the moment, all travelers must fill in an arrival form when entering the Czech Republic, regardless of their vaccination status or the color of country they are coming from.

However, Prague's Municipal Court has cancelled the requirement to fill in the arrival form as of October 27. The court argues that this rule violates the right of any Czech national to enter the Czech Republic. The Health Ministry may adjust the requirement to comply with the court's decision, but it has not provided any details yet.

The Municipal Court also decided that requirements for post-arrival quarantine would be cancelled as of November 1. The Health Ministry has yet not modified its regulation.

Testing and quarantine requirements do not apply to those with completed Covid-19 vaccination, or a certificate proving that they recovered from Covid-19 in the past 180 days.

The Czech Republic accepts the vaccination of those from non-EU countries who were given vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency, or corresponding vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation for emergency use.