The Council of the European Union has removed Namibia from the list of countries that should have travel restrictions abolished after estimating the COVID-19 situation in the country.
Recently, authorities in the European Union countries agreed to reimpose temporary travel restrictions on all travellers from Eswatini, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, as a response to the Omicron variant.
“Following a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU, the Council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which travel restrictions should be lifted. In particular, Jordan and Namibia were removed from the list”, the statement reads.
However, the Council has emphasized that the list will continue to be reviewed every two weeks in order to be updated.
In addition, the Council has also urged the Member States to lift the travel restrictions at the external borders for residents of Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Kuwait, New Zealand, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, and China, subject to confirmation of reciprocity starting from December 2.
The Council has also advised the Member States to lift travel restrictions for arrivals from Taiwan.
“Residents of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican should be considered as EU residents for the purpose of this recommendation. Schengen associated countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) also take part in this recommendation,” the statement reads.
Although many European countries began to relax some of their preventive measures imposed to prevent the further spread of Coronavirus, the spread of a new strain known as Omicron, which has been detected in several European countries, has forced authorities to reimpose stricter entry rules.
Many European countries, including Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, have identified cases of infections with the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron.
As the Omicron variant spread to European territories, countries like Denmark, Slovenia, Hungary, France, Lithuania, Finland, and Czechia increased their entry restrictions.
In October, the Council urged the Member States to lift the restrictions on arrivals from Bahrain as well as the United Arab Emirates after confirming that the Coronavirus situation in both territories was improving.
