Estonia weekly updates to entry restrictions [6–12 December 2021]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia has published a new set of travel restrictions applying to every person coming to Estonia from the Member States of the European Union, the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City.

In Estonia, travel requirements are different for people who are vaccinated or have been infected with COVID-19 in comparison to those who are not vaccinated or haven’t had the disease in the past. But the rules also vary according to the country they’re coming from. This is why the Estonian authorities create a new table of rules on a weekly basis.

This means that the rules that they have announced now will be valid from December 6th, 2021, to December 12th, 2021.

There are no special travel requirements for people who are immunized with vaccines or with previous COVID-19 infection. For those who are not vaccinated or have not been sick, there are no travel requirements if they come from a country with less than 75.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day in the last 14 days. This week, the only country in Europe that meets this requirement is the Vatican, according to the Estonian government.

In the rest of the world, the countries that are under these rules are Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Colombia, Indonesia, Kuwait, New Zealand, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and United Arab Emirates.

People who are not immunized in any way and travel to Estonia from a country with an infection rate of 75.1-200 new cases on average per 100,000 inhabitants per day in the last 14 days must bring a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test with them or accept to be tested at the border. In this case, the travelers must self-isolate until they have the results of the test. Nowadays, these rules apply to people coming from Romania, Spain, and Sweden.

Lastly, if the traveler comes from a country with more than 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, travel quarantine rules apply. The traveler will still be tested upon arrival in Estonia if he or she didn’t take a COVID-19 diagnostic test before boarding. Another test will be needed no earlier than day 6 if he or she wants to shorten the 10-days long period of self-isolation. The European countries that are affected by this norm are Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,  San Marino,  Slovakia,  Slovenia,  Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Third countries affected by travel quarantine rules are Uruguay, Canada, Chile, and South Korea.

Estonia has also added travel quarantine requirements for people coming from countries at high risk of Omicron variant spread: South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho, Eswatini (Swaziland), Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Egypt, and Turkey.

Additionally, the travelers must fill a “traveler questionnaire” providing information about the country of departure, layovers, etc., three days before arriving in Estonia.