Slovenia places Czech Republic back on list of COVID-19 “safe states”

Czechs from the Moravian-Silesian Region will no longer require a negative COVID-19 test in order to travel to Slovenia after the country placed the Czech Republic back on its list of green, “safe states” that do not pose a coronavirus risk, Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček told Czech Radio’s Radiožurnál on Friday. Over the past weeks, Czechs with permanent or temporary residency in the region were required to produce a negative test ahead of booking their stay in Slovenia unless they wanted to go straight into quarantine.

The country decided to remove the Czech Republic from their list of green countries two weeks ago in view of the ongoing outbreak in the Karviná district which is part of the Moravian-Silesian Region. The move was met with protests from Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and subsequent negotiations.

Foreign Minister Petříček said he was happy with the result of the bilateral talks and that the Slovenian government activated the change in travel rules from the midnight of Thursday to Friday.