Fully-vaccinated travelers from the United States are to be allowed to enter Portugal, most likely from some point during from this coming week.
The news came from economy minister Pedro Siza Vieira during a visit to the Algarve.
He told Rádio Renascença: “we are in a position to approve the opening of non-essential travel and flights to people from the US to Portugal as long as they have a vaccination certificate.”
He stopped short of giving a date, but intimated the policy-change would be “up and running” by next week
American tourists will need to have received the final dose of one of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved vaccines “at least 14 days prior to flying”. By coincidence, all three of the Covid vaccines used in the US are EMA-approved (Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson).
Says online ‘travelpulse.com’, the move will make Portugal “the latest member of a growing group of European nations, including Croatia, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Norway that have reopened their borders to fully-vaccinated American leisure travelers”.
Mr Siza Vieira’s comments came after last weekend’s announcement by the UK that any travelers returning from Portugal would require a 10-day period of quarantine.
This ‘major blow’ to Portugal’s ‘already devastated tourism sector’ will at least now be partially compensated by the green-light to Americans, over 1.2 million of whom visited Portugal in 2019 before restrictions brought in due to the pandemic suspended non-essential travel.
Says travelpulse “a good portion of American travelers (are) eager to visit Europe this year”.
