Greece and Switzerland are the two most recent countries to announce that they would drop all of their COVID-19 entry restrictions in May.
The Greek Minister of Health, Thanos Plevris, said that Greece would no longer apply entry rules to incoming travellers.
According to the Minister, all travellers, regardless if they are reaching Greece from an EU or third country, will no longer be required to present a valid vaccination, recovery, or test certificate upon their arrival.
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This means that all travellers, even those who have not been vaccinated or recovered from the virus as well as those who do not hold a COVID-19 test, will soon be permitted restriction-free entry to Greece for all kinds of purposes.
Similarly, the Swiss authorities have announced that travellers from all over the world will soon be able to enter Switzerland without being required to follow any entry rules.
Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Migration said that as soon as the measures get dropped, all travellers, regardless of their country of origin, will no longer be required to provide any COVID-19 proof upon their arrival in Switzerland.
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The authorities emphasised that from May 2, incoming travellers will only need to follow other border rules, such as holding a valid passport or a visa, if such a requirement applies to them.
The decision of Greece and Switzerland to drop the COVID-19 entry restriction follows the low infection rates and the high vaccination rates.
The figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveal that Greece has reported 50,112 new infection cases, and Switzerland has reported 9,703 new infection cases in the last seven days.
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As for the vaccination rates in these two countries, data shows that they keep on increasing each day.
According to the data from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Greece has administered a total of 20,726,866 vaccine doses as of April 21. This means that 81.9 per cent of the entire adult population has completed primary vaccination, and another 64.6 per cent has received an additional vaccine dose.
As for Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health shows that Switzerland has administered 15,664,046 vaccine doses as of April 19. Of the total population, 69.1 per cent of them have completed primary vaccination, and only 42.8 per cent has received a booster shot.
