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COVID-19 RULES

Denmark changes United States to orange in updated Covid-19 travel guidelines

The United States will on Saturday change status to orange in Denmark’s Covid-19 travel guidelines, tightening restrictions on travel for non-vaccinated people.

Denmark changes United States to orange in updated Covid-19 travel guidelines
Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The United States moves to orange along with Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro and North Macedonia in updated travel guidelines announced by the Danish foreign ministry on Friday. The US and Israel were previously classed as “hatched orange”, while the others were yellow.

Fully vaccinated travellers do not face any change in rules as a result of the orange status. As such, fully vaccinated people from the United States and other orange countries may enter Denmark without any requirement to take a Covid-19 test before or after arrival or to isolate.

Unvaccinated people from orange countries who have conferred immunity due to previous infection with Covid-19 are likewise not required to test or isolate but, unlike vaccinated people, must provide a worthy purpose for travelling to Denmark (this does not include tourism). Worthy purpose requirements do not apply to Danish nationals or people resident in Denmark. Detailed information about worthy purposes can be found here.

People who are travelling from orange countries based on a negative test (and are therefore neither vaccinated nor have been previously infected with Covid-19) are required to isolate after entering Denmark. They must also provide a worthy purpose for travel (see above). As when arriving from yellow countries, non-vaccinated people in this category must take a Covid-19 test before and after travel to Denmark.

Detailed information on the restrictions can be found here.

Denmark’s decision comes after the European Council removed the US and the five other countries from its travel safe list on Monday, meaning visitors, particularly those not vaccinated against Covid-19, can face tighter restrictions on travel to Europe.

The EU’s decision is non-binding and individual member states can decide how to act, but Denmark’s decision on Friday follows the EU’s stance.

The move by the EU follows a steep rise in Covid rates in both the US and Israel sparked by the spread of the more contagious Delta variant.

The EU Council bases its decision on “the epidemiological situation and overall response to COVID-19, as well as the reliability of the available information and data sources.”

It also takes into account reciprocity, in other words how countries treat travellers from EU countries.

In recent weeks there has been heightened pressure to remove the US from the list, not only due to rising Covid rates but also because the US still bars non-essential travel from European countries.

The Danish foreign ministry advises against non-essential travel to orange countries. The recommendation does not immediately apply to people who are fully vaccinated or have immunity conferred by previous infection.

The new guidelines come into effect at 4pm on Saturday.

READ ALSO: Travel update: Denmark changes Sweden to yellow in latest guidelines

Member comments

  1. Is there any clarification as to whether UK travellers who were vaccinated with one of the Astrazenca India vaccines need to test / quarantine? I don’t see anything online confirming this one way or another but makes me anxious to book travel.

    1. Vaccinated U.K. travellers (even with AZ) don’t need to test prior to travelling to Denmark or to quarantine on arrival. Returning to the U.K. is a far more convoluted process though.

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COVID-19 RULES

Danish court hands out hefty fine to beauty salon owners for Covid-19 breach

The city court in Roskilde on Friday fined the owners of a beauty clinic in the town 200,000 kroner each for repeatedly opening their business during Covid-19 lockdown.

Danish court hands out hefty fine to beauty salon owners for Covid-19 breach

The court’s decision was confirmed by Central and West Jutland police in a statement.

Prosecutor Camilla Kragh said that the prosecution service had hoped for the owners of the clinic to submit a guilty plea.

“But the defendants would not fully admit the charges and they wanted a jury trial instead. So there have been many procedural steps that have contributed to the fact that the case has only just come to an end,” she said in the statement.

The couple are joint owners of the beauty clinic Cliuniq in the town, located around 30 minutes outside of Copenhagen.

Police visited the clinic and found it to be open on 18 occasions during a period when this was prohibited under Covid-19 restrictions.

“These are large fines and they show the seriousness of the matter in relation to the situation society was in at the time,” Kragh said in the statement.

The court has found them guilty of the charges raised by the prosecution, which also stated that they undertook hair removal treatments at the clinic without proper registration with the Danish Patient Safety Authority (Styrelsen for Patientsikkerhed).

The clinic owners are reported to be considering an appeal against the decision.

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