Norway weekly updates to entry restrictions [13–19 December 2021]

The Ministry of Health and Care Services of Norway has introduced some changes to entry restrictions for certain countries and areas.

From midnight of December 13th, 2021, people coming from the Finnish region of Lapland will be required to isolate themselves for 10 days after arrival in Norway. This is because the region of Lapland recently changed from orange to red, and people coming from countries and areas colored red, dark red, and grey are subject to travel quarantine once they arrive in Norway —unless they have a valid and verifiable COVID-19 certificate or if they present a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test on day 3 (or later) upon arrival in Norway.

In Finland, other areas that fall under these travel rules are Pirkanmaa, Central Tavastland, Southwest Finland, Helsinki-Uusimaa, Kymmenlaakso, Central Finland, Central Ostrobothnia, North Savo, Päijat-Häme, South Ostrobothnia, North Ostrobothnia, and South Karelia. Only Kainuu, Länsi-Pohja, North Karelia, Satakunta, South Savo, Vaasa, East Savo, and the Åland Islands are exempt from these entry restrictions. No regions have been green in Finland since week 48.

In Sweden, the areas affected by Norway’s entry restrictions are Blekinge, Gävleborg, Gotland, Halland, Kalmar, Skåne, Stockholm, Uppsala, Värmland, Västernorrland, Västmanland, Västra Götaland, Örebro, and Östergötland. Only Dalarna, Jämtland, Jönköping, Kronoberg, Norrbotten, Södermanland, and Västerbotten are exempt from them.

Denmark is particularly affected by Norway’s entry restrictions because it doesn’t have green (from week 46), orange (from week 46), or red areas (anymore but only dark red areas). This includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands as well.

Other countries in Europe that are considered unsafe for entry into Norway are Andorra, Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Estonia, France (including Corsica), Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Greece (including the Southern and Northern Aegean Islands, the Ionian Islands, and Crete), the Czech Republic, Croatia,  Italy (except for Sicily and Sardinia), Cyprus, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal (including the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira), Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain (including the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands), Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

There are no more green islands and archipelagos in Europe from week 48 and no more green mainlands in the continent from week 49.

Outside of the European continent, there’s the special case of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Malawi, which have been considered high risk countries from the beginning of the month due to the spread of the Omicron variant in southern Africa.

People coming to Norway from these countries are subject to special rules including additional COVID-19 testing and travel quarantine mandatory even for fully vaccinated travelers.

Apart from the presence and spread of variants of interest or variants of concern, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health imposes new entry and travel restrictions to countries and areas with high infection rates. The governmental entity performs an assessment of the epidemiological situation in each relevant country on a weekly basis and publishes the results on the Norwegian government official website.