On Wednesday, September 1, Portugal announced the lifting of a nearly 18-month covid-19 travel ban imposed on non-essential travelers from Brazil.
Portugal also eased restrictions for other travelers. Those from European Union can now present the Covid-19 negative certificate. Tourists from the US are still allowed to enter with a vaccine certificate or a negative Covid-19 test result upon arrival.
Even though Brazilians form a larger proportion of the expatriate community, were allowed into the country due to basic reasons such as work, health, and family, the overall lift of the ban remained highly anticipated.
The long-standing ban on travelers from the Portuguese-speaking country in South America was necessary to curb the spread of the deadly Coronavirus, making Brazil one of the hotspots in the world.
According to data from the World Health Organization, Brazil recorded more than 581,000 fatalities out of the more than 20.8 million covid-19 cases recorded as of August 30, 2021, while Portugal recorded more than 17000 fatalities out of more than 1 million cases recorded.
With the increasing global covid-19 vaccination efforts, Portugal is on the lead with more than 73% (7.63M) of the population vaccinated, while Brazil comes fourth with more than 30% (63.5M) of their population vaccinated.
With the little of the covid-19 travel ban, tourists from Australia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia can travel to the country without going through a 14-day quarantine. However, they have to present a negative covid-19 test.
Visitors from India, Nepal, and South Africa will not be subject to the no-quarantine policy since they must go through a 14-day quarantine upon arrival and only travel for essential purposes.
Although the Portuguese government eased most of the covid-19 restrictions two weeks earlier than planned in a three-stage plan, the government has backed up the new developments with a swift vaccination roll-out.