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Iceland Will Permit Vaccinated Travelers to Skip COVID-19 Testing on Arrival and Quarantine, although only if they are from the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland.
Iceland currently has one of the lowest numbers of new cases in Europe. In the past few days, the recent 7-day average of new cases has been 3-4; taking into account Iceland's ~350,000 population, that equates to an average of just ~1 new daily case per 100K. To put that in perspective, Hawaii, the current best state in the U.S., has an average of 8 new daily cases per 100K.
Understandably, Iceland wants to keep its low COVID-19 incidence, which explains its current strict testing and quarantine regimen: arrivals are tested at the airport, must quarantine for 5-6 days, then be tested again. Only if both COVID-19 tests are negative is the traveller released from quarantine. Additionally, at time of writing, Iceland is only open to arrivals from Europe and a handful of other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.
Now, Iceland is exempting from testing and quarantine EEA/EFTA travelers who have received both doses of a vaccine authorized by the European Medicines Agency (currently the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines) with the doses the recommended number of days apart (19-42 days apart for the Pfizer vaccine; at least 28 days apart for the Moderna vaccine). The vaccine certificate, which may be in paper or electronic format, must meet the following qualifications:
- Be in Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, English or French
- First name and last name must match the passport or travel documents
- Date of birth
- Nationality
- Passport number (or travel document number)
- Name of disease vaccinated against (COVID-19)
- When vaccinations were performed (dates)
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While the Seychelles has also reopened to vaccinated travelers, including U.S. citizens (who are excluded from Iceland), travelers must still arrive with a negative COVID-19 test result taken no more than 72 hours prior to departure.
Cyprus, as of March 1, 2021, also plans to exempt COVID-19 vaccinated arrivals from having to present a negative COVID-19 test result.
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