Govt eases coronavirus border management strategy

Citing its criteria for "safe countries" for COVID-19, the government has decided to ease travel restrictions for citizens of several countries and has introduced new rules on testing travelers who wish to cross the country's borders, said Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo said at a press conference on Friday.

Late on Thursday, Finland defined 25 cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants in the previous two weeks as the limit value above which citizens of any given country may or may not be permitted to enter the country. Travelers from countries where the infection rate does not exceed this limit value would be allowed to enter Finland without the requirement to spend two weeks in quarantine, reported Xinhua.

Ohisalo said that based on the new criteria, Finland will lift travel restrictions for residents of Iceland, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Cyprus and Germany from Sept. 19. The same rule will apply to citizens of non-European Union (EU) countries Australia, Canada and Japan. However, Finland will restore restrictions on travelers from Italy and Hungary.

From the beginning of October, the infection situation in each country will be monitored by the Finnish authorities on a weekly basis. For now, such reviews are conducted every two weeks. If the limit value is exceeded in any country or region, border controls will be reintroduced for inbound citizens from those areas, the government said.

Asked to comment on the increasing infection rates in neighboring Estonia and Sweden, Ohisalo said that Finland aims to ease the access conditions for commuting workers by permitting travel without a test certificate or quarantine requirement as long as the regional disease situation remains roughly equivalent.

Under the country's new testing-based operating model, rules, travelers from countries that exceed the limit value will still be allowed to enter Finland if they present a certificate of a prior negative COVID-19 test at the border. However, they would be required to go into quarantine and get another COVID-19 test after three days. A second negative test would allow them to cut the quarantine short. The introduction of this new operating model will require urgent legislative amendments, which the government plans to adopt shortly, possibly in October.

The government noted in a press release issued on Friday that the new testing-based model will make it possible for the tourism sector to operate better than at present.

"First we have to look at the COVID-19 situation and see how it evolves. Then we have to look at the social and economic aspects of the restrictions we've had, because they do influence society quite a lot," Ohisalo said.