Ukraine has decided to reopen its borders to tourists once again; effective September 28 after it closed its borders on August 29 post reopening for the first time. The initial closure took place back during March and was later reopened for tourism for only two months. However, authorities had to close the borders to all non-essential foreign arrivals and tourists due to the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases.
The second closure was set to take to place for a period of one month and currently stands expired allowing the nation to re-open for tourism a second time. An official statement from the Ukraine Ministry of Tourism mentioned that restrictions on the entry of foreign citizens into the territory of Ukraine is being lifted starting September 28, 2020.
Ukraine has always been a country reliant on tourism and receives approximately 14 million tourists per year. The number can be considered as a major deciding factor in getting borders open for foreign arrivals again. Before the surprising closure in August, Ukraine allowed visitors from almost every nation around the globe with different entry requirements like PCR testing for arrivals from high-risk areas.
As of now, the Ministry of Health will continue to follow the ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ zone rules for the September reopening. However, the criteria for segregating the countries have been changed. Previously, the number of new cases compared to 100,000 population of each nation was used to determine the color zone of a particular country.
At present, the ‘Red’ zone is being defined by countries where COVID-19 cases numbers in the last 14 days are higher as compared to the numbers in Ukraine – or -countries where new case numbers have increased more than 30% in the last 14 days compared to the prior 2-week period.
On the other hand, ‘Green’ zone is being defined by countries having lower rates than Ukraine. Visitors arriving from ‘Green’ zone countries are now allowed to enter the Ukraine restriction free, while travellers from ‘Red’ zone will have to quarantine for 14-days, with the option of PCR testing to end isolation early.
Ukraine has a large list of ‘Green’ zone countries, that has over 140 lower-risk countries to enter without testing or quarantines including Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, Poland and Sweden among others. Meanwhile, countries like the USA, Spain, France and the UAE have been added on the ‘Red’ list.
Tags: Coronavirus, Covid-19, Ukraine, Ukraine Tourism
