The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will expand the travel advice with a new regional model for travel advice to the EU and Schengen countries as well as to the UK with effect from the beginning of December 2020.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Jeppe Kofod, states:
“With the new test data from ECDC, we can provide significantly more accurate travel advice than in the current model. It allows us to keep low-infection regions open provided that countries make the necessary health and test data available. Conversely, we may now with greater precision advice against travel to regions with higher infection rates. The most important consideration will continue to be the health, safety, and security of Danish travellers. The pandemic is still raging globally and in Europe, and our travel advice is a reflection of that.”
The regional model means that travel to low-risk regions in quarantine countries (better known as “orange” countries in our travel advice) will be possible in the future, and similarly that non-essential travel to high-risk regions in otherwise open countries (“yellow” countries in our travel advice) will be discouraged.
In the definition of a low-risk region, the well-known thresholds from the current model are maintained: in a quarantine country, our travel advice for a specific region will be that this particular region will be open as long as the infection rate is below 30 incidents per 100,000 inhabitants per week. However, the opening up of low-risk regions in quarantine countries requires the country to report valid test data at regional level to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
This adaptation of the travel advice model has been made possible by the fact that several countries – including Italy and Spain – have started reporting this data to ECDC. This is a result of, among other things, Danish pressure applied in the negotiations on the EU Council Recommendation on travel restrictions which was adopted in October 2020.
The definition of a high-risk region will be the one already used in connection with entry into Denmark (i.e. high-risk countries). This definition follows the thresholds that are also used in the EU Council Recommendation – including an infection rate above 75 incidents per 100,000 per week. If there is a high-risk region in an open country, then all non-essential travel to this region will be advised against.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Jeppe Kofod, states that:
“Concurrently, I must emphasise that the level of infection in Europe is still alarmingly high and, due to high infection rates and continued lack of data for a number of countries, there will not be any opening up of regions at this point. However, the new regional model will be relevant when infection rates in Europe are once again lower”
When the regional model for travel advice enters into force in early December, the recommendation for self-isolation for 14 days after returning from an orange country or region will change. Instead, self-isolation is recommended for 10 days after returning home. The isolation can be broken by a negative test result obtained at the earliest on the fourth day after entry into Denmark. In practice, therefore, in the future there will be self-isolation for five days instead of the current 14 days.
Press contact:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ press desk, pressevagten@um.dk
