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Portugal tightens entry requirements
From 1 December travellers to Portugal will also require a Covid test even if fully vaccinated. As before, entry requirements for Madeira and the Azores vary from the mainland so you need to check those separately. I covered the latest Madeira change here.
The official announcement is slightly vague into the type of tests but I’d assume it’s the same as for those not vaccinated:
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- RT-PCR Test (or similar NAAT test) – 72h before boarding, or
Rapid Antigen Test – 48h before boarding,
- RT-PCR Test (or similar NAAT test) – 72h before boarding, or
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From December 1st
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- Mandatory negative test for all flights arriving in Portugal, even for those who have a digital vaccination certificate, regardless of the point of origin of the flight or the passenger’s nationality.
- This measure applies to air, land, sea and river borders.
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FCDO do not seem to have updated their page yet. The Portuguese official page is here.
Sturgeon & Drakeford call for 8 day quarantine
As is usually the way in politics, as soon as the PM announces new measures, everyone else criticizes and tries to say they should be doing more. This morning Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford say they have written to the PM demanding that the rules are tightened and that all travellers should have to isolate for 8 days and take a day 8 test even if vaccinated as well as a day 2 test.
I would personally not expect England to require anything else at the moment unless new information about the variant emerges.
Good news on Swiss transit
When the FCDO updated its page yesterday it said ““From 27 November, travellers arriving in Switzerland from the UK who wish to transit to another country will need to self-quarantine in Switzerland for 10 days.”
However, the good news is that today it has been updated to say “From 8pm on 27 November, travellers arriving from the UK must self-quarantine for 10 days on arrival in Switzerland, including if travelling through Switzerland to another country. There is no quarantine requirement for those in transit airside at the airport.”
Obviously, if you have a connecting flight you would need to be sure that your luggage can be checked all the way through which can be an issue on separate tickets even with the same airline.
British Airways suspends Hong Kong flights
After the second BA crew was quarantined in Hong Kong for up to 21 days at the notorious Penny Bay quarantine centre, BA has finally suspended their Hong Kong flights. Many airlines had stopped allowing crew to disembark and then flown them onwards to other countries with less draconian rules. One crew member had tested positive which meant the whole crew had to quarantine whether they were vaccinated or not or tested negative. Flights are suspended until at least 1 December 2021.
I think they should have done this before now as the conditions in the quarantine accommodation are very basic. For some of the younger cabin crew especially, it must be a frightening experience being held prisoner in what is basically an adapted storage container.
5 comments
You failed to mention new Portugese rules apply to mainland Portugal. Madeira and the Azores have different rules Eg vaccination or test for Madeira
Yes as before there are separate rules for the islands. I have updated to make that clearer.
In some respects having the new variant in Europe might be a good thing, providing people/Governments don’t over react. Hopefully, the folks that have contracted it don’t get seriously ill and are not hospitalized meaning the vaccines are providing some protection. In addition to this, if the vaccines work well against such a heavily mutated variant, this must surely give the science bods and Governments some additional confidence going forward ?
Yes it all depends on what omicron turns out to be. If it was much less dangerous version of Covid as some reports suggest it could be a good thing. The main issue is that it’s so unknown.
Can’t imagine the HKG decision was difficult. I vancomycin three month Asiafest a few days before my 19 November departure. No one was going to be happy with the quarantine arrangements there. That’s the second year running. This is KILLING the travel industry.
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