Athens on Sunday announced that all Russian travellers, vaccinated or not, would have to show a negative PCR or rapid test result on arrival in Greece.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Tourism on Sunday “because of the propagation of the Delta variant in Russia from June 30th travellers arriving in Greece from Russia must present a certificate of negative PCR or rapid test. This measure is mandatory for all tourists from Russia whether they are vaccinated or not”. Travellers from Russia will also have to undergo another test as soon as they arrive. Since March, tourism officials had repeatedly stated that they would recognise Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. But according to media reports, during an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron blasted Greece and other tourism-dependent countries for accepting travellers without tests who were vaccinated with Chinese and Russian vaccines.
Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on Friday dismissed these reports as “journalistic exaggerations.”. “My personal assessment – which I believe is shared by the majority of the European Council is that there is no need to impose additional restrictions on travel from countries where this mutation already exists and its spread is more pronounced,” he added.
On Friday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned that Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine may never be approved by the European Union and cast doubts on China’s Sinovac jab. He also referred to a “certain discrepancy of pronouncements” on the safety of Covid-19 vaccines between the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and national medicine bodies.