Bulgaria is tightening sanitary entry rules for travelers: from January 6, all passengers, regardless of vaccination, must take a PCR test 72 hours before departure. This decision also applies to tourists from the European Union, it also applies to travelers from Ukraine. The relevant message was published on the website of the Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
The measure is aimed at limiting the spread of the omicron strain of coronavirus, the agency said. Currently, 12 cases of a new variant of New Year’s code are officially known in the Balkan country. On Wednesday, January 5, the Ministry of Health announced a more than threefold increase in the number of new infections in the direction popular with Ukrainians – from 1,900 to more than 6,200 a day.
According to the updated rules, travelers from EU countries in the red zone of Bulgaria must submit a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before arrival. They will also be required to present a valid certificate confirming that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 at least 14 days before arriving in the country. Children under the age of 12 are exempt from this requirement.
Exceptions are only Bulgarian citizens and members of their families who do not have any of these medical documents, will still be admitted to the country subject to 10 days of mandatory quarantine – even if during this period they have a negative test result.
The list of the red zone of Bulgaria includes countries that have reported more than 500 cases of coronavirus infection per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, or reported the spread of “omicron”. On January 6, Bulgaria added the United States, Canada, and Australia to its red list, effectively banning the entry of foreigners from those countries. Ukraine remains “red”. But Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg and Romania are the only countries participating in the Euro-bloc that are not currently on Bulgaria’s red zone and are considered sanitary.
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