The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced a decision to extend the entry ban currently in place for travellers from the majority of third countries until May 31.
According to a press release issued by CCA on May 22, besides passengers from the European Union and Schengen area countries, passengers from Australia, North Macedonia, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, Belarus, Bahrain, New Zealand, South Korea, Qatar, China, Kuwait, Ukraine, Rwanda, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Serbia and Thailand are also allowed to travel to Greece, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
Upon arrival, these passengers must provide a certificate of vaccination which proves the holder has been fully vaccinated at least 14 days before entering Greece or provide a negative test result of COVID-19, no older than 72 hours at the moment of arrival in Greece. The certificate of vaccination can be provided in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, or Russian and issued by a public authority in the respective countries.
The document must contain the traveller’s name, the type of vaccine administered, the number of COVID-19 vaccines doses inoculated and the date of administration. For travellers to enter Greece, the certificate has to be valid for two to nine months.
For international passengers arriving in Greece, they will have a rapid COVID-19 test performed, which, if results positive, the passenger has to quarantine for 14 days.
The current ban has been effective since May 14, when Greece reopened its borders for international travellers from the EU/EEA and several third countries who provided negative test results of COVID-19 or had the vaccines administered.
Besides European Union members, Schengen area countries and the United Kingdom, Russia, Israel, Serbia, United Arab Emirates, countries with low infection rates have also been allowed in Greece starting mid-May, as the government intended to revive the tourism sector.
Previously, Greece conducted an experiment by allowing 189 Dutch tourists to visit the Greek island of Rhoades for an eight-day holiday. The holiday test, organized by the Sunweb travel organization, the cost-effective airline Transavia and Dutch Government, aimed to determine whether safe holidays can be possible during the pandemic.
The group was selected from 25,000 applicants, and they were aged 18-70, so all age groups could be represented in the experiment.