From Friday, the Republic of Austria will drastically tighten the entry requirements for people coming from the Balkans region (with the exception of Slovenia and Croatia). In the future, the quarantine can no longer be bypassed with a negative corona test.

In recent weeks, returnees from the Balkans have led to a significant increase in the number of infected people in Austria, even though negative tests were usually presented. Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz did not directly assume forgeries, but described it by saying that the quality of the tests in this region would not be comparable to that in Austria.

From Friday, a negative corona test (PCR), which must be issued by certain institutions recognized by the Republic of Austria, must be presented. In addition, travelers from the Balkans region must be in quarantine for 14 days. To this end, the government announced that compliance with these would be strictly monitored.

All traffic routes are affected. For this reason, the aim is to control returnees from the Balkans more intensively, both overland and at airports. If there is no negative test, entry to Austria will be refused. Submitting the negative test does not release you from the 14-day quarantine.

It is handled a little more loosely for people who have their main residence in Austria or who have Austrian citizenship. Alternatively, after returning from the Balkans region, they can do the PCR testing in Austria within a short time at their own expense and thus end the quarantine.

With this measure, the Republic of Austria wants to make holidays and home visits in most of the Balkan states as bureaucratic and expensive as possible in order to be able to discourage people from traveling to these areas. With the exception of Croatia and Slovenia, the highest level of travel warnings has currently been declared for all Balkan countries.