Austria will lift its coronavirus-related border restrictions with seven neighboring countries from Thursday, the country’s Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said Wednesday.
Those countries are Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
“We are returning to the pre-corona situation regarding these countries,” Schallenberg declared, adding that there will therefore be no more border controls with these countries.
However, Austria’s border with Italy — one of Europe’s worst-affected countries — will remain closed. Schallenberg said the current infection rate in Italy would “not yet” allow an opening, adding that it would happen “as soon as the figures allow.”
Schallenberg said that although most borders are reopening, it is still best to refrain from unnecessary travel and to holiday instead within Austria.
Meanwhile, Germany is to lift its blanket travel warning for 29 European countries from June 15, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday.
Berlin will then issue individual travel guidelines on a country-by-country basis, “unless there are no-entry bans or large scale lockdowns in place in the respective countries,” he said.
Germany does not advise travel to Britain due to its plan to impose a 14-day quarantine on new arrivals, Maas added.
EU countries are starting to lift Covid-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions in place since March.
But Maas warned Germans to travel at their own risk. There will not be another repatriation initiative for any citizens stranded abroad this summer, he said.
