Hungary in the safest green zone – where can we travel from now on?

According to the freshly published epidemiological map of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Hungary is in the safest green zone. As a result, Hungarians can visit two more popular foreign destinations without any test or certificate.

In the last three months, the epidemiological data of Hungary has significantly improved. The low number of fatalities and new infections is probably due to the effective vaccination program of the country; as a result of which, Hungary has a 6-8-week advantage in vaccinations in the EU.

Thanks to the favourable epidemiological situation,

Hungary has entered the green zone on the epidemiological map of the ECDC.

As the Hungarian news portal Forbes reports, until last week, the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in the previous two weeks had to be below 25 for a country to get into the green zone with a positive test rate of better than 4%. Since then, a modification has been made in the classification of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control; as a result of which, it is enough to go below 50 for the best classification (green zone). Accordingly, not only Hungary but several other European countries have become green.

Consequently, two popular summer destination countries have opened up to European visitors – including Hungarians – coming from green countries without any test or immunity certificate.

One of them is Croatia, whose regulations say that tourists coming from the green zone are free to enter. No certificate is required. In addition, Spain also considers the list of countries at risk based on the ECDC map. Thus, tourists arriving from any EU country listed in the green zone no longer need a certificate of recovery or vaccination, nor the presentation of PCR or antigen test results, in order to enter Spain. All they need to do is request a QR code using the health declaration completed on the Spain Travel Health website 48 hours before the flight. The list is reviewed weekly by the Spanish authorities; the current classification is valid until 27th June.

As the Hungarian news portal Magyar Nemzet reports, the practice of accommodation may differ from the entry rules (especially in the Canary Islands) regardless of the ease of restrictions. Therefore, it is highly recommended to contact the accommodation for further details and get informed about the expectations as hosts still have the right to ask for certificates or negative test results when handing over the keys.

The Spanish government is also preparing for further ease of restrictions. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that thanks to advances in the vaccination protocol, mandatory outdoor masking is expected to end by 26th June. The final decision will be made on Thursday at the interregional meeting. If the majority votes yes, then the masks will only have to be put on indoors in Spain.

Just like in Hungary, where mandatory mask-wearing was abolished at the end of May. Still, Hungarian virologists draw attention to the importance of vaccination and precaution. According to the Hungarian news portal ATV, foreign examples show that the Indian mutant spreads faster and is much more dangerous to children than the previous variants. The loss of smell and taste is not a typical symptom as before. The currently spreading variant begins with cold flu-like symptoms.