Austria imposes quarantine for Romanians and Bulgarians if they don’t show negative COVID-19 test on entering the country

Austrian authorities have issued on Wednesday a travel alert for Romania, Bulgaria and Republic of Moldova, amid aggravating situation of COVID-19 pandemic in these countries and following new outbreaks had emerged in some regions in Austria.

“Please do not travel to these countries. That is our urgent appeal, as on the one hand it means putting one’s health at risk and on the other we have seen that there are ever more imported cases from these states,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told a news conference with Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, Reuters reports.

Citizens who arrive from Romania, Bulgaria and R. of Moldova must show a negative test or go into two weeks’ quarantine, follows warnings last week for Serbia and three other non-European Union countries in the Western Balkans.

The travel restriction also comes as more than 3,000 people in the province of Upper Austria, which borders Germany and the Czech Republic, have been placed in quarantine to contain an outbreak there. At the centre of that outbreak is a cluster of 180 cases linked to a church in the city of Linz with many Romanian parishioners.