The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice of Sweden reported in a press release that at an extraordinary government meeting, it was decided that the country will now receive vaccinated and non-vaccinated travelers from all countries in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).
From now on, travelers coming from EU and EEA countries —including the Vatican, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Switzerland— will only need normal travel documents to enter Sweden. Of course, this includes other Nordic countries such as Denmark, Finland, and Norway.
The entry ban for all EU and EEA territories has been officially lifted on February 9th, 2022, approximately one year after it came into effect due to the complicated sanitary situation linked to the widespread COVID-19 infection.
Now, the Public Health Agency of Sweden considers that the entry ban is no longer a 100% necessary restriction to keep COVID-19 under control in the country. This is because the Omicron variant has become the most dominant variant all over the world, but even though it is more contagious, it causes less severe illness and does not represent a heavy burden on the health system of countries where most of the population is double and triple vaccinated.
In Sweden, there are 7.55 million people with a complete vaccination schedule. This is more than 72% of the country’s total population. Furthermore, booster shots have been administered to more than 4 million people. That is almost half of Sweden’s population.
The removal of travel restrictions for EU and EEA countries will promote tourism and business travel in Sweden. The pressure on the Swedish Police Authority will also be relieved as fewer agents will be needed in the borders now that they won’t have to manually check the COVID-19 certificates of all travelers.
These will only be required in international arrivals from third countries as this rule will not expire until March 2022. Apart from the COVID-19 certificate showing prior infection and recovery and/or vaccination status, people coming to Sweden from countries outside the EU/EEA will need a valid reason to enter into Swedish territory (non-essential travel is still not enabled for third countries) and a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test (taken at least 72 hours prior to the flight) in most cases.
As usual, Swedish citizens, foreign residents recognized by the Swedish Population Registry, sailors and drivers of vehicles transporting goods, refugees, diplomats, etc., will continue to be exempted from the entry ban even if they’re coming from third countries. And there will also be an always-updated list of third countries that are exempt from the entry ban due to the low sanitary risk they pose (as recommended by the EU Council).
These countries currently are Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kuwait, Macao, New Zealand, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay.
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