Stricter Rules Take Effect at Icelandic Borders
Healthcare workers at Keflavík International Airport. mbl.is/Íris Jóhannsdóttir
Stricter disease prevention rules took effect at Icelandic borders at midnight, mbl.is reports. The new rules will be in effect through April 30.
Passengers arriving in Iceland are now required to present a certificate, showing negative results of a PCR test, taken within 72 hours of departure. The certificate will have to be presented before departure to Iceland and upon arrival. Iceland is Europe’s 14th country to make such a certificate mandatory for arriving passengers.
In addition, every arriving passenger must be tested for the coronavirus upon arrival in Iceland and again four to five days later. Travelers are required to stay in quarantine in between the two tests.
Those who provide valid proof of vaccination are not required to provide a PCR test prior to boarding and are also exempt from screening and quarantine measures at the border. The same applies to those who can provide proof of prior infection.
Those who test positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Iceland will be required to stay at a quarantine facility if no other adequate accommodation in isolation is available. If an individual tests positive and has a variant of the virus known to be more contagious or known to cause a more serious illness than do other variants, then he or she will without exception be required to stay at a quarantine facility.
According to a statement from Icelandair, Icelandic citizens who fail to present a certificate showing negative results of a PCR test will not be denied entry to the country, but they can expect to be fined. “Children born 2005 or later do not have to present negative results [of a PCR test], and the same goes for connecting passengers who do not leave the airport,” Icelandair’s statement reads.
The airline points out to passengers that if their flight to Iceland is not direct, they will likely have to present proof of negative results of a PCR test at the connecting airport, even though they do not leave that airport.
For more detailed information, see here. There you can, among other things, find information regarding what sort of certificates are accepted.
