Switzerland eases entry restrictions from Third Countries and Schengen Area

Monday, June 28, 2021

The Swiss Federal Council recently approved a proposal to relax Switzerland’s entry requirements for tourists arriving from the Schengen Area and third countries. Therefore, travellers reaching Switzerland from any of the Schengen Area countries are no longer required to go through quarantine. Vaccinated travellers from these countries are also exempted from the requirement of producing negative COVID-19 test results.

However, people who have not been vaccinated or have not recovered from COVID-19 reaching Switzerland through the air will be required to present negative COVID-19 test results. The Federal Council have announced all those arriving by plane, vaccinated and non-vaccinated, will still have to provide their contact details. It also stated that Switzerland is even easing existing entry restrictions for people arriving from third countries who can prove they have been vaccinated.

The list of countries issued by the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) has been amended accordingly and allowed travellers from countries as the US, Albania and Serbia to enter Switzerland. At the same time, the Federal Office of Public Health has also decided to revise the current list of high-risk countries which will then include only countries and regions with a worrying virus variant.

Yet, travellers from countries with a virus variant will still be permitted to enter Switzerland without quarantine and testing if they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or who have recently recovered from the virus. Whereas those who have not been vaccinated and have not had been infected with the virus recently are obliged to present a negative PCR test or rapid antigen test and go into quarantine on entry.

The Federal Office mentioned that the decision has been undertaken after the Swiss health authorities asserted that the vaccines used in Switzerland are only slightly less effective against the Delta variant and thus still offer a very high level of protection. The Federal Council has also adopted two EU regulations from EU’s COVID-19 vaccination certificated and launched the process to have the Swiss certificate recognised by the EU.

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