TIRANA – Albania has been included in the list of 29 countries whose citizens can travel to Greece by air, sea and land checkpoints, an official document made available by ekathimerini revealed on Monday.
“Greek officials said Saturday that the country will not limit arriving airline passengers next month to people coming from 29 countries but that travelers who departed from places that aren’t on the initial list will be subject to mandatory testing for the coronavirus upon arrival and a quarantine period of one or two weeks.” said the report.
The 29 countries announced Friday are: Albania, Australia, Austria, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Estonia, Japan, Israel, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lebanon, New Zealand, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, Norway, South Korea, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Finland.
High-ranking tourism ministry officials said the government needed to clarify the purpose of the 29-country list during the coronavirus pandemic, pointing to a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s website. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the issue was politically sensitive.
The list was drawn up based on a document from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency of airports worldwide “located in affected areas with high risk of transmission of the Covid-19 infection.”
Starting July 1, all Greek airports that can handle international traffic will reopen to flights from abroad. At that time, random screening for the virus will apply to all arriving passengers unless public health considerations dictate stricter testing, a tourism ministry official said.
Additionally, international arrivals by sea will also be allowed as of July 1, also subject to random testing. “Foreigners traveling by land also will be permitted to enter Greece from neighboring Albania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia – but not Turkey – and be subject to random testing,” it was said in the report.
Given the Greek decision, border crossing points of Kakavija and Kapshtica, southern Albania, will open starting from July 1 making possible travel to the neighboring country and vice versa.
A list adopted by the EU a few days ago classified Albania as a country whose citizens could not enter the Union members but a clause of the decision leaves the last say to individual countries as it happened with Greece.
Montenegro, which is not an EU member, has closed borders with Albania due to the high level of the pandemic in its neighboring country. Albania’s border is also open to Kosovo from where thousands of tourists flooded its beaches following the tradition of ‘patriotic tourism’.
The exceeding of the limit of 700 active coronavirus cases due to the unchecked spread of the disease during the last 15 days has put Albania on the list of countries whose citizens are prohibited entrance. As from Monday there are 970 cases considered as active and 84 of them are being treated at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Tirana. In the meantime local authorities announced on Monday that 64 new cases were confirmed with COVID19 while the number of fatalities mounted to 58. /argumentum.al
