Visitors from six countries exempt from Covid-19 testing requirement

By exempting visitors from certain countries from the testing requirement …

By exempting visitors from certain countries from the testing requirement Icelandic authorities are preventing the testing facility at Keflavik Airport from becoming a bottleneck. Landspítali/Þorkell Þorkelsson

Ásgeir Ingvarsson

Morgunblaðið

Starting July 16th visitors from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Germany will not need to be tested for Covid-19 at Iceland's border. An exemption was already in place for visitors from Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

Icelanders who visit these countries are also exempt from testing upon their return to Iceland but are asked to show special caution for a period of two weeks after their trip, the Morgunbladid reports.

The Covid-19 testing facility at Keflavik Airport – Iceland‘s main international airport –  is already operating near full capacity and only able to collect and process about 2.000 samples daily. With passenger numbers increasing faster than predicted it was feared that mandatory testing at the border would create a bottleneck and that authorities might be forced to revoke landing permits for many flights to keep passenger numbers in line with testing capacity.

Recent statistics show that visitors from Germany and the Nordic countries make up a large share of tourists entering Iceland this summer. By exempting people from those countries from getting tested the bottleneck at the border is removed and scheduled flights can resume without any interruption.

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