selensergen / DepositPhotos

Hungary is the first EU countries are willing to allow the Russians to enter the country from July 15 in the presence of the documents confirming the absence of coronavirus

selensergen / DepositPhotos

Hungary is the first EU countries are willing to allow the Russians to enter the country from July 15 in the presence of the documents confirming the absence of coronavirus. By the decision of the epidemiological authorities of Hungary, Russia is included in the list of countries the “yellow” zone, where residents will be allowed entry on certain conditions.

The citizens of Hungary, coming from Russia, and their families, as well as persons who are not citizens of Hungary, are obliged to undergo a medical examination upon entry into the country. If there is no suspicion of a coronavirus, requires mandatory quarantine for 14 days.

To avoid quarantine it is possible only in the case that the two tests for the presence of coronavirus in the past five days (with a difference of 48 hours) will show a negative result, and it will be confirmed by a document in Hungarian or English. Foreign nationals with suspected coronavirus will refuse entry. This is stated on the page of the Hungarian Embassy in Moscow in Facebook, but at the time of writing this message ceased to be available to the public.

Lost in translation: Hungary opens border for the Russians

In may, the Budapest withdrew most of the restrictions on the coronavirus, and also opened the borders for EU countries and neighbouring States outside the European Union. However, because of fears of new outbreak COVID-19 Hungary announced the tightening of entry restrictions and the division of countries into zones – green, yellow and red.

The red zone includes the countries experiencing the most serious situation with coronavirus. The citizens of these countries were denied entry into Hungary. In this category were Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, countries of Asia, Africa and South America.

In the “yellow” zone, in addition to Russia, included Bulgaria, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, UK, Norway, Serbia, Japan, China and the United States, reported on the official portal dedicated to the fight against coronavirus in Hungary. The list of countries will be regularly reviewed and, if necessary, the number of States in yellow or red category may increase.

As of 12 July, in Hungary revealed 4234 cases of coronavirus, died in 595 people.

Vice-Premier of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova has previously proposed to rebuild international air service from 15 July, with the achievement of indicators according to three criteria. The number of people infected with coronavirus should not be more than 40 per 100 thousand inhabitants, average daily gain ‒ less than 1%, and a prevalence of no more than 1. Values will be calculated for the last 14 days.

Foreigners will have no less than three days before arrival to Russia to obtain a certificate of no COVID-19 or the presence of antibodies to coronavirus (IgG). The procedure for coronavirus should substitute a two-week quarantine.

10 Jul the Federal air transport Agency announced the beginning of negotiations with foreign countries on the resumption of flights. The first stage involves the opening of air communication with the States in which there was the most favourable sanitary-epidemiological conditions.

Aviation authorities of several States sent suggestions and requirements for the resumption of flights. Some of them expressed interest, but some of the countries in question were not specified. The CPS proposed in the first phase to restore air links with 13 countries – UK, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Finland, as well as with China, Vietnam, Mongolia and Sri Lanka.

At the same time, Russia was not included in the initial list of States with which the EU is willing to open borders. The new version of the list of “safe countries” should be prepared by the Council of the EU by July 15.