Poland’s government has updated its list of countries with which flights are banned due to the coronavirus pandemic. The restrictions go into force from tomorrow, 2 September.
Among the destinations now added to the no-go list are Spain, Malta, Romania and Albania. Many other major countries, such as the United States, remain on the list (a full version of which is published at the end of this article).
At the last moment, the government backed away from plans to include France and Croatia. It has also decided not to include Belgium, which had appeared in an earlier planned expansion of the list to 63 countries that was later scrapped.
Meanwhile, China and Russia have been removed from the list, meaning flights to those destinations will be able to resume.
The ban, however, excludes international flights chartered by tour operators and their intermediaries before September 2, allowing tourists with pre-booked flights to return to Poland as planned, reports Onet.
Moreover, it is still possible to travel to listed destinations via transfers through other countries, or by crossing land borders, which have not been closed.
Poland was the only EU country to ban all international flights in the first months of the pandemic, according to Gazeta Wyborcza. The only other European country to do so was Ukraine.
Many other countries that have recently introduced tougher travel restrictions usually require travellers to quarantine (for example in the UK) or present negative COVID-19 tests (for example in Iceland, Egypt and Cyprus).
The government usually updates its list every two weeks, with the new ban expected to be in place until 15 September.
Poland has seen a recent spike in new coronavirus cases. In mid-August the country recorded its highest ever daily figure of new coronavirus cases, 903.
In response, the government has introduced a system of red and yellow zones for places that are experiencing higher numbers of infections. Restrictions have been reintroduced in those districts, including the requirement to wear masks in public – both indoors and outdoors – in red zones.
The full list of countries in the flight ban, to go into effect on 2 September and remain in place until 15 September:
- Albania
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Bahamas
- Bahrain
- Belize
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Cape Verde
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Eswatini
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- India
- Iraq
- Israel
- Kazakhstan
- Kosovo
- Kuwait
- Libya
- Luxembourg
- Lebanon
- Maldives
- Malta
- Mexico
- Moldova
- Montenegro
- Namibia
- North Macedonia
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Qatar
- Romania
- Spain
- South Africa
- Suriname
- United States of America
Main image credit: Dirk Daniel Mann/Pixabay
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
