Portuguese tourists are considered ‘too high risk’ in terms of possibly carrying Covid-19 to enter South Africa – but businesspeople, academics and investors are ‘acceptable’.
The new terms were announced yesterday as South Africa partially reopened its borders, with various limitations.
Essentially, 57 countries are ‘blacklisted’ because of their levels of infection – but if their nationals are hoping to visit for financial/ institutional purposes, they will be allowed through “dependent on certain requirements”.
These involve presenting a negative PCR Covid test (taken up to 72 hours before arrival) and travel insurance that would cover for costs of quarantine if necessary during the trip. Arrivals will also have to be wearing masks and fill out a health-related questionnaire.
Even so only three South African airports are accepting international flights into the country: Tambo in Johannesburg, King Shaka International in Durban and Cape Town International.
South Africa’s ‘battle with the virus’ sees it listed as the 10th most affected country globally, registering almost 17,000 deaths. New infections have been brought right down in the last three weeks but are said nonetheless to be ‘again starting to pick up’.
