Despite the improvement of the COVID-19 situation and the relaxation of travel rules by the European Union Member States, the US Department of State still continues to advise against non-essential travel to the EU.
The US Department of State updates its travel advisories every. However, no changes have been made for EU/EEA countries for weeks now, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The data provided by the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) shows that currently, all EU/EEA countries, including popular destinations such as France, Greece, Spain, Germany, and Portugal, have a “Level Four: Do Not Travel” advice.
Some of the countries were added to the Level Four list in early 2021, whereas others were added later that year. The full list of EU/EEA countries against which the US has issued a level four travel advice is as follows:
- Austria (since October 2021)
- Belgium (since November 2021)
- Bulgaria (since September 2021)
- Croatia (since October 2021)
- Cyprus (since December 2021)
- Czech Republic (since November 2021)
- Denmark (since November 2021)
- Estonia (since August 2021)
- Finland (since December 2021)
- France (since December 2021)
- Germany (since November 2021)
- Greece (since August 2021)
- Hungary (since November 2021)
- Iceland (since November 2021)
- Ireland (since August 2021)
- Italy (since December 2021)
- Latvia (since October 2021)
- Lithuania (since September 2021)
- Luxembourg (since November 2021)
- Malta (since December 2021)
- Netherlands (since November 2021)
- Norway (since September 2021)
- Poland (since November 2021)
- Portugal (since December 2021)
- Romania (since January 2022)
- Slovakia (since November 2021)
- Slovenia (since September 2021)
- Spain (since December 2021)
- Sweden (since December 2021)
- Switzerland (since August 2021)
Level Four is the highest advisory level that the US has and means that unvaccinated and unrecovered travellers must avoid taking any non-essential trips.
On the other hand, the advice is not as strongly applied to persons who have completed primary vaccination, those who have received an additional vaccine dose, as well as to those who have recovered from the virus.
While the US authorities still continue to advise the citizens against taking trips outside the country. The EU is currently doing the opposite. The majority of EU/EEA countries have already facilitated their entry rules, and several others have abolished all of their COVID-19 restrictions.
>> Travelling to Europe in April: Current Entry Rules & Other Restrictions Explained
At the moment, a total of 11 EU/EEA countries – Denmark, Czechia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Sweden- permit restriction-free entry to all travellers.
All persons, regardless of their country of origin and their vaccination status, can enter the above-mentioned countries without having to provide a valid vaccination, recovery, or test certificate upon their arrival.
The other EU/EEA countries still require travellers to present COVID-19 proof. However, the majority of them now apply less stringent domestic COVID-19 restrictions.
Read More:
US Continues to Discourage Travel to EU Despite Improvement of COVID-19 Situation