The authorities of popular Bulgaria refused to follow the pan-European course taken to ease anti-COVID restrictions for foreign tourists, including Russians , and introduced strict rules on admission to the country. The restrictions are valid from April 1 to May 15, 2022. This became known from the decree of the Bulgarian government, quoted by local media.
According to the authorities, the situation with the coronavirus is becoming alarming again, so the officials revised the countries in terms of incidence rates and, as during the pandemic, distributed the countries according to the traffic light system. Despite the approaching beach season, Russia was placed on the red list.
This means that Russians, like all tourists arriving in Bulgaria from the red list, are required to present one of the following documents:
- valid EU certificate of vaccination against coronavirus
- valid EU certificate of recovery
- valid EU test certificate
- a similar document containing the same data as the EU digital certificate.
On the other hand, travelers who cannot meet any of these requirements must undergo a 10-day quarantine upon arrival in the country and follow different rules based on their country of origin. It is clarified that not earlier than 72 hours after arrival in Bulgaria, the traveler can conduct a polymerase chain reaction test to detect COVID19 or a rapid antigen test. In the case of a negative result, the tourist can be considered “free” and move around the country. Children under the age of 12 are exempt from the requirement to provide documents related to coronavirus, regardless of which country they come from.
The countries that fall into the red zone of Bulgaria are listed:
- < li>Australia
- Andorra
- Afghanistan
- Barbados
- Bahrain
- Bermuda
- Brunei
- Bhutan
- United Kingdom
- Vietnam
- Gibraltar
- EU Member States
- Georgia
- Dominican Republic
- Israel
- Jordan
- Cayman Islands
- Costa Rica
- Mauritius
- Maldives
- New Zealand
- New Caledonia
- Norway
- Palau
- Russia
- North Korea
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon< /li>
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Tanzania
- Tonga
- Turkey
- Uruguay
- Faroe Islands
- French Polynesia
- Chile
- Switzerland
- South Korea
- Japan
For persons arriving from Ukraine, admission to the country is also possible upon presentation of a valid EU digital certificate of vaccination/recovery/testing or its equivalent containing the same data as the EU digital certificate. “Those who have not presented any of the above documents can be tested at the border sanitary control authorities using a rapid antigen test, if possible, or be quarantined for 10 days,” the message said.
What do you mean by certificates?
Vaccination certificate with a note about having been vaccinated with drugs approved by the EU and Bulgaria is valid from the 15th to the 270th day from the date of the last dose. For children from 12 to 17 years old, the document on the completed course of vaccination against COVID-19 is unlimited.
The vaccination certificate of recovery for Bulgaria is a document certifying that a person has recovered from COVID-19 and is valid for the period from the 11th to the 180th day from the date of the test entered in the document.
What regarding the certificate with test data, the document specified that the test must be performed 72 hours (PCR test) or 48 hours (antigen test) before arrival in Bulgaria and must contain all personal information of the owner, such as name, birthday, test type, issuing authority and result.
Bulgaria has recorded 1.14 million positive COVID-19 cases and more than 36,500 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the WHO. In addition, over the past seven days, 8,139 infections and 137 deaths have been recorded in the country. It is noteworthy that the vaccination rate in the country remains the lowest in the EU, with only 29.5% of the population having completed the full course of vaccination.
For those who care about a healthy lifestyle, we recommend reading: “The doctor spoke about an unexpected danger that hiding in a sausage.”
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