Covid-19: Bulgaria adds France to red zone list of countries with travel restrictions
Bulgaria’s Health Minister Assena Serbezova issued an order on December 17 amending the list of foreign countries classified respectively as red, orange or green zones according to their Covid-19 situations. The changes take effect as of December 20.
This was the first change to the list announced by the ministry since November 26, even though Serbezova’s predecessor, caretaker minister Stoicho Katsarov, had said last summer that the red, orange or green zone lists would be reviewed on a weekly basis.
In the latest order, four countries and territories were added to the red zone list – France, Jordan, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Spain, Malta and Sweden, previously in the green zone list, were moved to the orange zone, while Serbia, Montenegro and Ukraine were moved from the red zone list to the orange zone.
The Bulgarian Health Ministry’s current criteria for classifying a country as a Covid-19 red, orange or green zone may be found in English here (the green, orange and red zone lists in that November 26 order is amended by the December 17 order). These classifications determine the rules for entry to Bulgaria.
The same order establishes a list of countries whose Covid-19 vaccination, testing and disease certificates are considered equivalent to the EU Digital Covid certificate. The full list is in annex 4 of the November 26 order.
Only the Vatican City State was on the list of green zone countries. Countries listed neither as red or green zones are regarded as orange zones.
Red zone countries are Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, eSwatini, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Seychelles, Namibia, Zambia, Oman, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Mongolia, North Korea, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Suriname, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Singapore, Brunei, Jordan, United Kingdom, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Austria, Netherlands, Ireland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Hungary, Denmark, Iceland, Greece, Germany, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Poland, Switzerland, San Marino, Luxembourg, Norway, Cyprus, Monaco and France.
(Sofia Airport. Photo: Apostoloff)
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