US nationals will no longer be allowed to enter Austria unless they present a vaccination or recovery proof, as the Austrian government has removed the country from its safe countries list.

From September 15, the only US travellers permitted to enter Austria will be those inoculated with the authorised COVID vaccines, which among others include the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Moreover, 14 days must have passed since the final vaccination occurred (for two-dose vaccines) and 22 days since the single-shot vaccine (Janssen) was administered. Thus, the validity of the two-shot vaccine stretches to 360 days, whereas the single-shot vaccine is valid for 270 days after the vaccination, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

US nationals who have recovered from Coronavirus will also be eligible to enter Austria, provided they can prove they recovered from COVID-19 in the last 180 days or if they present a positive COVID-19 antibodies test no older than 90 days.

On the other hand, unvaccinated Americans are obliged to present a completed entry registration form, a COVID detecting test upon arrival and submit a ten-day entry quarantine.

Austrian authorities recognise the molecular-biological test (PCR), which has to be taken no earlier than 72 hours before arrival and the antigen tests (rapid), performed no later than 48 hours before entering the country.

The test result proof must include the traveller’s full name, birthdate, date and time of testing, QR unique code, and the signature from the responsible authority for testing.

Except for the US, travellers subject to more stringent measures from September 15 include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brunei, Israel, Japan, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Thailand.

Also, according to a press release issued by the Austrian Embassy in Washington, starting from September 15, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Suriname and Zimbabwe will be considered as areas of variants of concern, whereas Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Uruguay will be removed from this list.

These measures followed the European Commission’s recommendation to ban US travellers from entering European countries due to a spike up in positive cases with Coronavirus. This recommendation has been adopted by several other countries before Austria, including Italy, the first country to apply more stringent measures for Americans.

According to the World Health Organisation, there have been 1,891 positive cases registered in Austria in the last 24 hours. Since January 2020, the country has suffered 10,623 deaths related to Coronavirus and 706,648 people were infected with the virus.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) data shows that 73.5 per cent of the population in Austria is vaccinated with the first shot of COVID vaccine, and 69.8 per cent is fully immunised against the virus.

On the other hand, Our World in Data reveals that as of September 13, 54.4 per cent of the population in America is fully vaccinated and 63.8 per cent has received the first shot of the vaccine.

Source: Schengenvisainfo News