Czech Republic restores international transport after quarantine

The Czech government will allow international passenger transport by bus and rail from May 11, which were banned under quarantine through the coronavirus.

The corresponding proposal of the Minister of Industry and Trade was approved by the government on Monday, May 4.

At the same time, the borders of most of the neighbours of the Czech Republic remain closed, so the possibility of travel will depend on their decisions in the coming weeks.

Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek noted that the borders will be fully opened for four neighbouring countries – Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia since July. According to him, negotiations with Poland on opening borders are likely to be the most difficult. The minister is also considering the possibility of resuming trips to Bulgaria, Hungary or the Baltic countries, where the authorities managed to take control of the distribution of Covid-19.

Petrzycek does not exclude that soon it will be possible to return to the normal functioning of not only the Schengen zone but also countries that are not members of it.

Note that from May 4, KLM airline resumed regular flights on the Amsterdam-Prague route after the Czech Republic eased quarantine restrictions on entry and exit.

Now regular flights to Prague are also operated by Eurowings from Dusseldorf and Belavia from Minsk.

Since April 27, the Czech government has allowed foreigners who are citizens of the European Union to enter the country to study or to conduct business activities. Previously, this was only allowed to Czech citizens or foreigners with the right to stay in the Czech Republic for more than 90 days.

All arrivals must present a certificate of analysis for COVID-19, which was issued no more than 4 days ago. Otherwise, they must undergo a 14-day observation.

The Czech government also allowed citizens to travel abroad, which was previously prohibited.

Currently, the number of coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic has reached 7,750 cases. The Czech Republic is one of the first countries in the EU to begin lifting quarantine restrictions from April 24.