Estonia weekly updates to entry restrictions [20–26 December 2021]

Estonia has updated its entry restrictions based on the infection rates of each country.

The infection rates are measured on a 14-day period taking into account the daily average of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

This week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia has split the list of third countries whose residents can enter Estonia for tourism purposes. This is because COVID-19 cases have been increasing in Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Russia, Australia, Chile, and South Korea. So these countries are now on the red list of third countries. This means that people coming to Estonia from these countries will be subject to stricter travel rules —but only if they’re not fully vaccinated or have not previously been infected with the novel coronavirus.

For these people, entry into Estonia depends on a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test, which they can bring along with them or take it at the border. After that, they’re obliged to stay in quarantine for 10 days unless they take another test on day 3 (if they brought the first test from their country of origin) or day 6 if they took it at the border.

These rules also apply to non-vaccinated people from the European Union and Schengen Area countries, as well as the UK and the microstates of Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican, with an infection rate of over 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day in a 14-day period.

Currently, these countries are Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

In the Europe list, only the Vatican is currently on the green list because it has an infection rate lower than 75.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In the list of third countries, the green areas are Bahrain, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Kuwait, New Zealand, Peru, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates.

For people coming from these countries, there are no entry restrictions even if they’re not fully vaccinated or have not previously had the disease.

The list of European countries also has a “yellow” category for those countries with an infection rate between 75.1 and 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day. Currently, only Romania remains on this part of the list, with 75.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This means that people coming to Estonia from Romania need to take a COVID-19 test 72 hours before traveling to Estonia or take it at the border, but they’re exempt from the 10-day travel quarantine.

As always, the data to make these lists and decide on the entry restrictions is taken from the official agency ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control).

Additional meters for the decision include the 7-day average number of new hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 infections, the number of COVID-19 patients on ventilators, and the infection rate of people over 60 years old.