From Saturday, Belgium is banning travel from the U.K. over the fear of the Delta variant.
An update of its travel measures, published Thursday, introduces a list of “very high-risk” countries, due to the presence of worrying coronavirus variants. It bans people who spent time in the countries in the preceding 14 days from traveling to Belgium — either directly or indirectly — unless they are Belgian nationals or residents.
Belgium halted travel from Brazil, South Africa, and India in April, the list currently includes 26 other countries, including Argentina, Georgia, Tunisia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The measure carves out a number of exceptions, including the close family of Belgian nationals and residents, people traveling to their home in the EU or the Schengen area, transport workers, and people traveling for “extremely compelling humanitarian reasons.”
People still allowed to travel have to fill out a passenger locator form and face testing and quarantine requirements — applying to even fully vaccinated travelers.
Meanwhile, Belgium is preparing to lift a ban on leisure travel from other non-EU countries from July if travelers can prove they’re fully vaccinated with a jab that’s recognized by the European Medicines Agency.
Belgium will accept the EU COVID certificate and third countries’ certificates, if the Commission or Belgium have decided they’re equivalent to the EU document, as proof.
