Government removes four countries from low-risk list to enter Finland
The Finnish government approved Thursday another amendment to the decree allowing entry into Finland without the anti-Covid-19 requirements laid down in the Communicable Diseases Act, such as vaccination or additional testing.
In the light of the changed epidemiological situation, several states have been removed from the list of low-risk countries, from which arrivals in Finland are considered safe.
The amendment to the decree will enter into force on Monday 23 August 2021.
From Monday, people arriving in Finland from countries or regions where the incidence of Covid-19 or the prevalence of virus variants does not pose a particular risk of spreading the epidemic will not be required to show proof of full vaccination against or of recovery from the disease within the past six months or to take tests upon entry.
The situation has deteriorated in the following countries and they will be removed from the decree: Albania, Australia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Romania.
At the same time, the municipality of Övertorneå in Sweden will be included in the decree, because no new cases of Covid-19 have been reported there over the past four weeks.
Low-risk territories
Under the government decree, people arriving in Finland from the following countries and territories will not be required to be tested or show a certificate:
- Hong Kong
- China
- Macao
- Poland
- Taiwan
- Hungary
- New Zealand
- Vatican
- The Norwegian municipalities of Storfjord, Kåfjord, Nordreisa, Kautokeino, Karasjok, Tana, Nesseby and Sør-Varanger
- The Swedish municipality of Övertorneå.
In these countries and regions, the incidence of new Covid-19 cases is less than 10 per 100,000 inhabitants in the previous 14 days.
Finland incidence increasing
Meanwhile in Finland, at the time of writing this article, the incidence was 182 per 100,000 inhabitants for the whole country and 306 per 100,000 for the Helsinki-Uusimaa region, according to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
The total number of new cases reported between 9 and 15 August was 5,163, compared to 5,072 the week before.
Finland registered 13 deaths from coronavirus last week, bringing the number of deaths from Covid-19 to 1,008 since the pandemic broke out.