Northern Europe during Pandemic -- Summers 2020 & 2021 & onwards

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by Wotname

Asking only for clarification (and my understanding of the numbers), I have two questions.

Are the doses of vaccine a single dose or both doses?
Does 100 people mean 100 adults or 100 humans of any age?

AFAIK single doses, and humans of any age--

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

.....Denmark does not require any self-isolation for anyone at all, if they are coming from a "yellow" country, which Finland is considered. Even coming from an "orange" country (most of Europe), no "worthy purpose" is required anymore, so tourists are welcome, but if you come from an orange country, you are supposed to self-isolate, unless you are vaccinated.....

Hi Dockhead
My head is swimming trying to make my way through the ever changing regulations.

Do you have a Danish link to this? All I can find is that anyone who is “habitually resident” in a non EU or Schengen country designated orange still needs a worthy purpose to enter Denmark. The UK falls under this umbrella. Weirdly though, if I am interpreting this correctly, it seems that if someone has spent the last few weeks or months in the UK, but resides in a yellow country these restrictions do not apply. This seems insane to me.

I posted on the 17th May that the Faroe islands were not following Denmark’s regulations, but all that has now altered. Their website was updated on the 19th May to state they are a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark and are following Danish rules:

https://corona.fo/travel?_l=en

[Dockhead]

Germany now accepts vaccination in lieu of both testing and self-isolation: https://www.bundesgesundheitsministe...-englisch.html


This is great news.


Yesterday, the EU Commission formally advised all EU countries to exampt vaccinated EU residents from testing and self-isolation: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/covi...idents-2453252. Please implement this, EU countries!

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Germany now accepts vaccination in lieu of both testing and self-isolation: https://www.bundesgesundheitsministe...-englisch.html


This is great news.


Yesterday, the EU Commission formally advised all EU countries to exampt vaccinated EU residents from testing and self-isolation: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/covi...idents-2453252. Please implement this, EU countries!

When travelling within EU. Not yet any reccomendations when travelling to the EU.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Anders

When travelling within EU. Not yet any reccomendations when travelling to the EU.

Indeed.


The EU Commission advised opening to non-Europeans if they are fully vaccinated. No sign of actual implementation yet.

[Copacabana]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Indeed.


The EU Commission advised opening to non-Europeans if they are fully vaccinated. No sign of actual implementation yet.

I would imagine this will mean fully vaccinated with an EU-approved vaccine. I'm beginning to worry about future travel as vaccinations in one country may not be recognized in another. I would like to see a global vaccination card adopted like the old "yellow card" that recognizes all vaccines approved in any country. No one has ever questioned what version of the yellow fever vaccine I had, but I will face this for the Covid vaccine when I return to Canada in September for a visit...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Copacabana

I would imagine this will mean fully vaccinated with an EU-approved vaccine. I'm beginning to worry about future travel as vaccinations in one country may not be recognized in another. I would like to see a global vaccination card adopted like the old "yellow card" that recognizes all vaccines approved in any country. No one has ever questioned what version of the yellow fever vaccine I had, but I will face this for the Covid vaccine when I return to Canada in September for a visit...

EU recognizes all, as far as I know, vaccines approved in developed countries. Only Sinopharm and Sputnik are in question, but Sputnik should be approved soon since Hungary and Slovakia are using it.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by Copacabana

I would like to see a global vaccination card adopted like the old "yellow card" that recognizes all vaccines approved in any country. No one has ever questioned what version of the yellow fever vaccine I had, but I will face this for the Covid vaccine when I return to Canada in September for a visit...

"recognize all vaccines approved in any country" means what? It sounds about useless. No one cares about 'yellow fever' is optional. vaccines have always been optional.

If you arrive by sea, they may not care if you have a vaccine or not. Does anyone know?

Otherwise, they can either turn you away or vaccinate you on arrival, perhaps with a brand new vaccine more effective than ever.

[Copacabana]

Originally Posted by seandepagnier

"recognize all vaccines approved in any country" means what? It sounds about useless. No one cares about 'yellow fever' is optional. vaccines have always been optional.

If you arrive by sea, they may not care if you have a vaccine or not. Does anyone know?

Otherwise, they can either turn you away or vaccinate you on arrival, perhaps with a brand new vaccine more effective than ever.

I don't think you get my point...

Say you had the Moderna vaccine in the US and want to travel to Brazil. Brazil hasn't approved the Moderna vaccine for use in the country. Does it make sense to you that you will be treated as an "un-vaccinated" passenger upon arrival and perhaps subject to an expensive 14-day quarantine? There are more than half a dozen Covid vaccines in use already, and there are more to come. It's going to be hard to travel if we don't come to an agreement and accept vaccines that are approved and administered in other countries. Every country has a health authority that follows the same basic vaccine approval processes. Why not trust them?

And no, yellow fever is not "optional" in some countries. My point was that, upon arrival, no one questions which "version" of the yellow fever vaccine you had- they just look at the date of vaccination and health authority stamp.

Let's see how this unfolds over 2021. Perhaps there will be a return to a universal "yellow" vaccination card to facilitate travel.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Copacabana

I don't think you get my point...

Say you had the Moderna vaccine in the US and want to travel to Brazil. Brazil hasn't approved the Moderna vaccine for use in the country. Does it make sense to you that you will be treated as an "un-vaccinated" passenger upon arrival and perhaps subject to an expensive 14-day quarantine? There are more than half a dozen Covid vaccines in use already, and there are more to come. It's going to be hard to travel if we don't come to an agreement and accept vaccines that are approved and administered in other countries. Every country has a health authority that follows the same basic vaccine approval processes. Why not trust them?

And no, yellow fever is not "optional" in some countries. My point was that, upon arrival, no one questions which "version" of the yellow fever vaccine you had- they just look at the date of vaccination and health authority stamp.

Let's see how this unfolds over 2021. Perhaps there will be a return to a universal "yellow" vaccination card to facilitate travel.

At the moment, all European countries I know about which exempt you from self-isolation if you are vaccinated, do so ONLY if you were vaccinated with a vaccine approved for use in Europe.



Denmark exempts you from testing on arrival ONLY if you were not only vaccinated with a European-approved vaccine, but you also must have been vaccinated in Europe. I found that out the hard way when I arrived in Denmark last week and was made to go back to the other line to get tested.



So this is a real problem.



I do hope there will be more reciprocity.

[Copacabana]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

At the moment, all European countries I know about which exempt you from self-isolation if you are vaccinated, do so ONLY if you were vaccinated with a vaccine approved for use in Europe.



Denmark exempts you from testing on arrival ONLY if you were not only vaccinated with a European-approved vaccine, but you also must have been vaccinated in Europe. I found that out the hard way when I arrived in Denmark last week and was made to go back to the other line to get tested.



So this is a real problem.



I do hope there will be more reciprocity.

Yes, it is a problem...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Hi Dockhead
My head is swimming trying to make my way through the ever changing regulations.

Do you have a Danish link to this? All I can find is that anyone who is “habitually resident” in a non EU or Schengen country designated orange still needs a worthy purpose to enter Denmark. The UK falls under this umbrella. Weirdly though, if I am interpreting this correctly, it seems that if someone has spent the last few weeks or months in the UK, but resides in a yellow country these restrictions do not apply. This seems insane to me.

I posted on the 17th May that the Faroe islands were not following Denmark’s regulations, but all that has now altered. Their website was updated on the 19th May to state they are a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark and are following Danish rules:

https://corona.fo/travel?_l=en

The rules change constantly and I spend hours and hours figuring them out. The only sources I have are these: https://um.dk/en/travel-and-residenc...irus-covid-19/ and https://en.coronasmitte.dk/rules-and...iFf6ErUqaY8vTo


It's fairly maddening at times.


The good news is that the UK ought to be a yellow country the next time the classifications come out. AND, according to general EU policy, Denmark SHOULD be open soon to ANYONE who is fully vaccinated. So keep faith!

[Dockhead]

The situation in our region on this first day of June:





Denmark (where I'm writing this from) is the only country in our region which has not seen a sharp decline in cases, and in fact cases are up over the month of May. Denmark now has the highest daily infection rate in Scandinavia, and in fact, tied with Lithuania for highest in the entire region. But the rate is not that high and vaccinations proceed apace so maybe nothing to worry about.


It's especially great to see the case rates in Germany to fall all the way to 50 per million.



As far as deaths are concerned:





The picture is really good everywhere, including Denmark.



Only Latvia and Lithuania are significantly above the European average, and that's a high bar as Europe as a whole now has a lower death rate than the U.S.



Lithuania and Latvia are way down from their peaks, and are both below 4, which is a rate which corresponds to hospitals being in decent shape. These rates should come down as case rates have fallen in both countries.


The picture of a pretty decent summer seems to still be pretty clear.

[Dockhead]

In other good news, Sweden today announced its reopening plan:


https://www.thelocal.se/20210527/key...-restrictions/


The restrictions (which are mostly recommendations) come off entirely in September. That will be a great day!



Now 13 1/2 months after the start of the pandemic in Europe, we can see that Sweden actually did what it said it would -- lay on sustainable pandemic measures which it would keep in place continuously without jerky closing and opening, closing and opening.



It's probably STILL too early to draw final conclusions, but I'd say Sweden has come through this very well, relatively speaking, in the lowest 1/3 of European countries in terms of cumulative deaths, and much less damage to society from the secondary consequence of stricter pandemic measures.



The rest of the Nordic countries, using more or less the same playbook, have done even better. Finland, the country of my residence, and Norway are altogether the least affected of European countries, with only 172 and 143 cumulative deaths per million to date. The biggest difference in the measures among the Nordic countries was that Sweden, unlike the rest of them, never closed primary schools, something everyone later agreed was the right thing to do.

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Denmark exempts you from testing on arrival ONLY if you were not only vaccinated with a European-approved vaccine, but you also must have been vaccinated in Europe. I found that out the hard way when I arrived in Denmark last week and was made to go back to the other line to get tested.

So this is a real problem.

What a pain!
This only applies if you are not a citizen though:

“If you are a Danish citizen fully vaccinated against COVID-19, no matter in which country in the world, you will also be exempt from the requirement of test and isolation after entry when arriving from yellow and orange countries or regions. You do not need to have residence in Greenland, the Faroe Islands or an EU or Schengen country.”

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The rules change constantly and I spend hours and hours figuring them out. The only sources I have are these: https://um.dk/en/travel-and-residenc...irus-covid-19/ and https://en.coronasmitte.dk/rules-and...iFf6ErUqaY8vTo

It's fairly maddening at times.

I, too, have spent hours reading trying to make sense of the widely varying and ever changing regulations. It has been driving me nuts.

The main Danish page I have found useful is this one:

https://en.coronasmitte.dk/rules-and...n-of-countries

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The good news is that the UK ought to be a yellow country the next time the classifications come out. AND, according to general EU policy, Denmark SHOULD be open soon to ANYONE who is fully vaccinated. So keep faith!

Unfortunately, I don’t share your optimism about the UK being a yellow country anytime soon. More and more countries are closing borders to the UK (eg France yesterday) unless someone has a “worthy purpose” or “compelling reason” to travel. The variant first detected in India is now responsible for about 80% of cases here and spreading very quickly. Good protection from this variant apparently does not occur until several weeks after the second dose of vaccine, and most of Europe is still a fair way off achieving that so they are desperately trying to slow the spread of this variant.

As for restrictions easing for the “fully vaccinated”, if countries decided to follow Denmark’s lead and have their own definitions of who they consider to be fully vaccinated, then actual status may be irrelevant when it comes to restrictions being eased.