Overseas Situation Report Tuesday 21 September 2021
by Mike Evans
“As we are beginning to restart our world after being hit by a horrific global health crisis, our actions hold the key to a fast recovery for the entire humankind…”
– Abhijit Naskar
There have been a lot of recent changes to travel restrictions around Europe and as some countries relax their rules others tighten them and it can be a bit of a mindfield to find out the right answer. In this Overseas Report we are looking at what travel restrictions are in place within the Schengen area of the EU. Schengen refers to the EU passport-free zone that covers most of the European countries. It’s the largest free travel area in the world. The Schengen zone includes the 26 countries that have signed the Schengen agreement, which allows citizens of member countries to travel within the zone freely, without passing through passport and border control.
There are another 19 other countries that are not part of the Schengen Zone, yet they allow foreign citizens of other non-Schengen countries to enter and stay in their territories, only by showing a valid multiple-entry Schengen Visa.
Several European countries reintroduced temporary internal border control and extended the restriction due to Coronavirus concerns, terrorism attacks, and secondary movement, the European Commission has announced.
Coronavirus restrictions include Norway, whose measure will remain effective until October 7, and France, which was introduced from May 1 until October 31. These measures imposed by Norway and France apply to all of their internal borders
Denmark announced the border control due to Coronavirus risk on May 12, and the measure remains valid until November 11. However, the border control towards all internal borders is expected to be abolished soon. Although the reintroduction of travel border control must be the last alternative to be applied, the Schengen Borders Code (SBS) allows the Member States to reintroduce the measure in order to minimize threats of public policy or internal security. Norway’s border control is valid until November 9 and was introduced due to terrorist threats and secondary movements on May 10. The measure is applied to ports with ferry connections to Denmark, Germany, and Sweden.
Furthermore, Austria imposed the measure on May 12, which is directed to secondary movements, risk related to terrorists and organized crime, the situation at the external borders, and the land borders with Hungary and Slovenia. The measure will remain effective until November 11.
Germany has also extended the internal border restriction until November 11 due to secondary movements and the situation at the external borders. The restriction initially introduced on May 12 will apply to the land border with Austria. France’s restriction regarding internal borders will be extended until October 31 and is raised due to constant terrorist threats and secondary movements. Non-vaccinated and unrecovered travellers reaching Switzerland are required to present a negative test performed before arrival and another one, carried out four to seven days upon arriving in the country, starting from Monday, September 20, the country’s authorities have announced. The decision has been determined in a bid to halt the further spread of COVID-19 as the autumn season vacations are approaching.
Furthermore, regardless of the vaccination status, all travellers reaching Switzerland must complete SwissPLF, a Passenger Locator Form. The form allows the authorities to locate travellers residing in respective cantons and determine whether they have been tested on the fourth to seventh day upon arrival, as the law orders.
However, travellers administered one of the vaccines approved by the Swiss medical authorities, those who tested positive for the virus in the last 30 days, as well as the EU Digital COVID-19 Certificate holders are permitted to enter the country free of entry quarantine or testing requirements.
Travellers transiting through Switzerland, drivers transporting people or goods, cross-border commuters and people entering border areas are also exempted from testing requirements. Children under 16 are also excluded from the test requirement. On the other hand, since August 4, the Swiss authorities have imposed more stringent restrictions on travellers from India, Nepal and the United Kingdom due to the concerns of the virus variants in these areas. Moreover, all travellers reaching Switzerland from the EU/Schengen Area countries, and other third countries found in the EU’s list of epidemiologically safe countries, are permitted to enter the country. However, they need to present a valid vaccination or recovery certificate or be willing to undergo the double testing requirements.
Authorities in Slovakia have announced that starting from September 20, the border regime will be relaxed, and only police members will carry out checks, the country’s Ministry of the Interior has announced. Anyway, travellers who have been fully vaccinated and can prove their vaccination status by showing valid evidence are permitted to enter Slovakia without being subject to entry restrictions.
Still, authorities in Slovakia previously announced that all persons who have not entirely finished their immunization process would have to undergo a five-day mandatory quarantine rule upon their arrival.
Due to the current Coronavirus situation, authorities in Slovakia have placed other countries into different categories, taking into account their epidemiological situation, imposing additional requirements for travellers who plan to enter the Central European territory from countries that have recently been profoundly affected by the virus.
In this regard, Slovakia’s Ministry of the Interior has clarified that the riskiness of individual districts regarding the COVID-19 situation will be estimated in a new way.
“Less weight should be given to those infected among children under 18 years of age. This follows from the third update of the Covid Vending Machine, which was approved by the government on Thursday, September 16, 2021,” the statement reads.
The Ministry of Health has stressed that the new calculation methodology should be more focused on other factors that lead to the increase in the number of COVID-19 infections.
Two of the countries whose residents have faced some of the harshest travel restrictions since the beginning of 2021 – Brazil and South Africa – have finally been removed from Germany’s list of high-risk areas. In an announcement of the Robert Koch Institute, which is the German federal government agency and research institute, responsible for disease control and prevention located in Berlin and Wernigerode, the same has noted that Brazil and South Africa have been removed from the high-risk list, alongside Bangladesh, Botswana, Eswatini, India, Ireland’ the West Region, Lesotho, Malawi, Nepal, Portugal’s Algarve region, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Cyprus.
The decision means that travellers from these countries reaching Germany are no longer subject to strict entry requirements, in particular those who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19 with one of the vaccines accepted as proof of immunity, as well as those who haven’t recovered from the virus in the last 180 days. Vaccinated and recovered travellers from these countries no longer need to have a purpose of entry, as they can travel to Germany even for tourism purposes now.
Finally and further afield, The United States administration has finally taken concrete steps towards the removal of the entry ban on travellers who visited the United Kingdom, Ireland, the 26 Schengen Area countries, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil, after the same have been banned from entering the country for over a year now.
The decision was announced by the White House on Monday, September 20, noting that air travellers from the countries listed above, including the EU countries and the UK, will be permitted to enter the US in November if they are vaccinated. The same travellers will also be exempt from the requirement of quarantine.
Children who aren’t eligible to get the vaccine yet will be exempt from the requirement to be vaccinated.
The decision does not cover land travel from Canada and Mexico.While the Coordinator did not specify the exact date when the ban would be removed, he noted that this would happen in early November. The US has been keeping their borders closed for travellers who have been in the Schengen Area countries, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Brazil, China, India, Iran and South Africa in the past 14 days, for almost a year and a half.
The ban has been criticized in particular in the past months, including by the European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas, who cancelled his trip to the US last month in protest against the entry ban imposed on Europeans, calling it “unfair”.
As the epidemic continues we shall endeavour to bring you the latest and accurate news on travelling overseas.
Until the next time stay safe.
Total Cases Worldwide – 229,847,462
Total Deaths Worldwide – 4,713,920
Total Recovered Worldwide – 205,526,020
Total Active Cases Worldwide – 18,607,522 (8.1 % of the total cases)
Total Closed Cases Worldwide – 211,239,940
However, whilst most regions have seen drops, many individual countries are seeing a rise again in new cases. To start with let’s look at Europe, where overall the drop in new cases in the past week has been 7%. Looking closer at this figure, there is a definite East West divide in so far as those countries in the Eastern side of Europe are seeing a surge in new cases whereas those in the west are seeing a drop.
In Canada they saw a rise in the week of 15% compared to the previous week with a total of 30,110 new cases across the country. Whilst Mexico has seen a drop in cases by 18% in the past week there are worrying concerns that the virus is taking a hold in some parts of the caribbean. The past week has seen a more than 300% increase in cases in St Vincent and the Grenadines, a 73% increase in Bermuda, 32% in the Bahamas, 30% increase in St Kitts & Nevis and a 21% increase in Barbados. The concern is that as the tourist winter holiday season starts these countries who rely on tourism are going to be affected in not just health concerns but in economic concerns as well.
This after Israel’s vaccination rollout that began last December was among the fastest in the world and brought infections to a trickle by June, when all pandemic restrictions were lifted. But when cases began surging again through the summer, health experts confronted a key question, said Gabi Barbash, a former health ministry director general now with the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Of the more populous countries Egypt had an increase of 36% in new infections compared to the previous week, with Angola and Madagascar also showing rises of 31 and 27% respectively.
This is a great achievement and one for which Portugal should be congratulated, in particular the work of Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo and his team. A major logistical challenge, only a military man with a logistical background could perhaps achieve!
As far as Safe Communities is concerned we take the information primarily from the IPMA and the ECMWF which is used by the IPMA, supplemented by other international organisation which use modelling appropriate to Portugal. For instance in the case of tropical cyclones (luckily few and far between), we often use the US hurricane Centre which has advanced technology especially as far as tracking is concerned.
Lisbon, 15 Sep 2021 (Lusa) – The national pharmacovigilance system detected 41 cases of “suspected vaccine failure” in people who received the Janssen vaccine, 36 of which were considered serious, the National Medicines Authority (Infarmed) said today.
The Hospital Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca detected today eight cases of covid-19 in patients admitted to the ‘Orthopedics A’ service and has already activated the contingency plan to contain and mitigate the risk of contagion, said source hospital.
Portugal is about to reach the target of 85% of the population with vaccination against full covid-19 , which, according to the coordinator of the ‘task-force’, Vice Admiral Gouveia e Melo, should happen by the end of the month with the vaccination centers gradually being deactivated.
“Authorities need the best and timely information. When there is such a huge delay as the one we are now witnessing, we may be condemning the population to suffer consequences that no one wants. Today, the IPMA provides radar data with about 90 minutes of delay, which means that when this data reaches the civil protection agents, it will be too late», defends Luís Gomes.
“The ‘call center’ service is being carried out by firefighters and should be carried out by civil, technical and specifically trained personnel. It doesn’t make sense to have rescue workers clinging to a central”, he exemplified, defending that the ideal number will be between 70 and 80 effective and that the recent contest for 16 new firefighters does not solve the problem.
Between January and July, considering most types of accommodation (tourist accommodation establishments, camping and holiday camps and youth hostels), there were 5.8 million guests and 14.8 million overnight stays, corresponding to breaks of 1.2% in both cases, compared to the same period in 2020.
EarthCheck is an international certification and consultancy group for scientific benchmarking in travel and tourism, in operation since 1987. The certification responded to the criteria of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, an international accreditation body for certification of sustainable tourism.
On 
There were 41,380 travellers under monitoring by the health authorities. Monitoring is being carried out through the ‘MadeiraSafe’ app. There were also 250
The plan for this week is to continue to inoculate the population throughout the Region.
Empresa de Electricidade da Madeira (Madeira power supplier) announced there will be power cuts due to scheduled work on the electricity supply network. 
After nasal, oral and fecal samples were sent for testing, the zoo received presumptive positive results indicating that several gorillas had been infected by the virus that causes covid-19, the zoo said in a 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the virus has been shown to infect mammals, and there have been documented reports around the world of animals, including pets and those in zoos and sanctuaries, being infected. The agency noted that most got the virus after contact with infected humans.
In fact, these antibodies were even able to deactivate a virus engineered, on purpose, to be highly resistant to neutralization. This virus contains 20 mutations that are known to prevent SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from binding to it. Antibodies from people who were only vaccinated or who only had prior coronavirus infections were essentially useless against this mutant virus. But antibodies in people with the “hybrid immunity” could neutralize it.
The Government of India has approved a new COVID-19 vaccine that uses circular strands of DNA to prime the immune system against the virus SARS-CoV-2. Researchers have welcomed news of the first DNA vaccine for people to receive approval anywhere in the world, and say many other DNA vaccines might soon be hot on its heels. It must be stressed that this approval is for emergency use only at this stage.
RNA vaccines were quicker to show strong immune responses in clinical trials; they have now been delivered to hundreds of millions of people around the world. But DNA vaccines have a number of benefits, because they are easy to produce and the finished products are more stable than mRNA vaccines, which typically require storage at very low temperatures.
Although ZyCoV-D’s efficacy seems to be lower than the 90% or higher achieved by some mRNA vaccines, the figures are not comparable, says Jameel. The ZyCoV-D trials in India earlier this year were conducted while the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 was the dominant variant in circulation, whereas earlier mRNA vaccine trials were conducted when less transmissible variants were circulating. “The efficacy is essentially against the Delta variant, so that is pretty good,” he says.
DNA vaccines can store lots of information, which means they can encode large, complex proteins or even multiple proteins. Weiner says that gives them promise as anti-cancer vaccines, a possibility he is exploring in his own research.
Good morning – Yesterday was a very unusual day, almost unique in terms of rural fires, certainly for September, in that at 20.00 hrs there were NO fires, either Active, In resolution or concluded. This is so unusual in Portugal during the Critical Fire Period, I contacted the ANEPC in Lisbon and they confirmed that this was indeed the case.
Leslie made landfall in the central region of Portugal, resulting in extensive material damage in Figueira da Foz, and placed thirteen districts under red warning due to strong winds and waves. It was considered the biggest storm to hit Portugal since 1842
The number in hospital is the lowest figure in almost two months, since on July 10th there were 632 hospitalized. There are also five fewer patients in Intensive Care Units (total: 135).
The Epidemiology Group of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) will be heard in parliament on Wednesday about the mandatory use of masks, following a request by the PSD approved this Tuesday, a parliamentary source told Lusa.
Almost eight thousand nurses have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in Portugal, which represents about 10% of professionals registered with the Order, the organization said.
In a statement, Infarmed says that the “3Ply Type II Face Mask”, model M3PII, from the manufacturer BesilChem LLP, unduly bears the CE marking as there is no evidence of compliance with all applicable legal requirements at European level, including the fact that the technical documentation is incomplete.
The children and young people, unaccompanied, were welcomed in Portugal under the Voluntary Relocation Program and are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Pakistan and Sudan, says a joint statement from the cabinets of the ministers of State and of Sudan. Presidency, of Internal and Labour Administration, Solidarity and Social Security.
On the same day, there were 37 suspected cases under epidemiological investigation and analysis, which were all linked to patients who tested positive for Covid-19, to calls made to the SRS24 helpline, to referrals by SESARAM (Madeira Regional Health Service) and to airport screening
At this stage, there is no need to book a vaccination spot. Anyone interested in being inoculated will simply need to visit any vaccination centre. The Covid-19 vaccine can be administered to any Madeira resident aged 12 or older, at any vaccination centre and without booking.
As of September 5th, a total of 367,976 
On September 4th, Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) opened a new route from Switzerland to Madeira (Funchal). The weekly flight from Geneva will be operated by Edelweiss, a SWISS subsidiary. An Airbus A320