Entry restrictions to continue until 25 May

The government on Thursday decided to extend the ongoing restrictions on entry into the country until 25 May in the context of the coronavirus situation.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread and the authorities do not yet have adequate measures available to replace the restrictions, said the Ministry of the Interior in a press release.

For this reason, and to curb the spread of COVID-19 variants, both internal border controls and restrictions on external border traffic will continue.

In addition to the restrictions on internal and external border traffic, restrictions on the opening hours of certain border crossing points at the western border in Lapland and the eastern border will continue.

At the border crossing points that are open to passenger traffic, the accepted criteria for entry are the return of persons living in Finland or in another EU or Schengen country and other essential reasons.

Internal border traffic refers to traffic between Finland and other Schengen countries. Finland continues to restrict entry from all other Schengen countries except Iceland.

The restrictions on external border traffic will continue without any change.

External border traffic refers to traffic between Finland and non-Schengen countries.

Earlier, restrictions have already been lifted for traffic arriving in Finland from the Vatican, and for traffic between Finland and Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Rwanda, Thailand, and New Zealand for residents of these countries. Entry from these low-risk countries is not restricted due to the low incidence of COVID-19 there.