Norway weekly updates to entry restrictions [25-31 October 2021]

The latest assessment by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) introduced a few changes to travel and entry restrictions for compromised areas. The agency, which belongs to the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services (HOD), reviews COVID-19 infection rates in relevant EU territories and third countries and reduces or adds travel restrictions for those areas accordingly on a weekly basis.

Last Friday, the NIPH published HOD’s decision to impose travel quarantine for Hungarian nationals visiting Norway. Swedish region of Norrbotten and Finnish regions of Central Ostrobothnia, South Ostrobothnia, and Vaasa were also added to the list of mandatory travel quarantine as they’ve all recently changed their COVID-19 category from orange to red. The new rules went into effect on Monday 25 October.

Travel quarantine is required for citizens of all countries and regions colored red, dark red, and purple. Travelers from grey countries are also obliged to quarantine if they don’t have a valid COVID-19 certificate specifying vaccinations, COVID-19 tests, and/or COVID-19 infections.

Travel quarantine for Norway is currently 10 days long unless the visitor presents a negative result from a PCR test 3 or more days after arrival.

Other red countries and areas forced to travel quarantine are Croatia, Belgium, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark (including the Faroe Islands), and Greenland. Amongst the dark red countries are Romania, Latvia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, and United Kingdom.

Who is exempt from travel quarantine?

Main exceptions for travel quarantine are children under 18 years old from any country and adults from green countries (currently Malta and Liechtenstein only), or the green areas mentioned below:

• Sardinia (Italy)
• The Canary Islands (Spain)
• The Northern Aegean Islands (Greece)
• Åland Islands, North Karelia, and South Savo (Finland)
• Gotland, Värmland, Blekinge, and Västernorrland (Norway)

Travelers from orange territories aren’t required to quarantine either. Orange countries are Iceland, Portugal, Spain, France, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Poland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Italy, Vatican City, and the Czech Republic.

Orange areas include:

• Madeira (Portugal)
• The Azores (Portugal)
• Corsica (France)
• Crete (Greece)
• Sicily (Italy)
• The Balearic Islands (Spain)
• Central and Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, North Jutland, Zealand (Denmark)
• Dalarna, Kalmar, Halland, Gävleborg, Skåne, Jönköping, Kronoberg, Södermanland, Västra Götaland, Uppsala, Örebro, Jämtland, and Östergötland (Sweden)
• Central Tavastland, Länsi-Pohja, Kymmenlaakso, Lapland, Kainuu, South Karelia, and East Savo (Finland)

What are purple and grey areas?

Purple areas are third countries or areas with moderate COVID-19 infection rates, which merit lighter entry restrictions. Nationals from purple countries are required to take a COVID-19 test, fill an entry registration, and quarantine for 10 days after arriving in Norway.

Current purple countries are Uruguay, New Zealand, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan. Chile was recently removed from the list of purple countries and added to the list of grey countries, meaning that Chileans now have to justify their entry to Norway. Apart from quarantining and submitting valid COVID-19 certificates, travelers from grey countries must also have strong reasons for visiting Norway.

Besides Chile, some other grey territories are Australia, Canada, Ukraine, Jordan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, South Korea, and Rwanda.