- The Netherlands has just announced new travel restrictions in response to new COVID-19 variants.
- Travelers from non-European countries must take a quick test within four hours of their flight.
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines canceled all its long-haul flights in response.
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The Dutch government on Wednesday announced a new COVID-19 shutdown that severely restricts international travel, prompting flag carrier KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to suspend all its long-haul flights, according to Reuters.
New government requirements require passengers to obtain a negative COVID-19 rapid test result, no later than four hours before departure for the Netherlands. In addition, passengers must also have a negative result from a PCR test that departs within 72 hours of the flight to enter the country.
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The restrictions are from the strictest mandate by any national government until late in the pandemic, and the country expects that travel will consequently decrease significantly. According to Reuters and Cirium, KLM planned to serve more than 30 countries outside Europe in January with around 270 long-term departures.
Travelers must still be quarantined for at least five days, even before they can test with a negative PCR test. If a negative test result is not received after five days, the quarantine may end after ten days.
The Netherlands has also announced a ban on passenger flights from the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela . KLM currently serves eight of the countries.
A ban on passenger flights from the UK, initially issued in December, has also been extended. The new travel restrictions from those countries are expected to last at least one month or until legislation is enacted setting out the requirements for quarantine travelers.
“The government is seriously concerned about the British variant of coronavirus, which is even more contagious than the virus we are familiar with in the Netherlands,” the government said in a statement.
The Caribbean Netherlands is also affected by the new order, according to the statement, which means that travel to Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, as well as the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including Aruba, St. Maarten and Curaçao, may be affected. .
Bonaire recently opened its air borders to North America with plans for uninterrupted flights to the US in February.
Residents of the Netherlands are advised against international residents until at least 31 March 2021. “Every trip a person undertakes increases the chance of causing more infections or of bringing new variants of coronavirus to the Netherlands.”
On the home front, citizens in the Netherlands are advised not to have more than one daily visitor over the age of 13 and not to make more than one daily visit to another household. An evening clock rule is also planned to keep residents within 20:30 to 04:30
The Netherlands also limits what type of travelers will be exempted from entering the country during the pandemic. As a result, access to groups, including business travelers and students, will be banned.
The government also pointed out that “people in long-distance romantic relationships who want to travel to the Netherlands for a short period of time will no longer be granted access.”
“We do not want to look back in a few weeks and realize that we have not done enough,” the statement said.