Portugal to Reopen Borders to US Travellers

In an attempt to save the summer tourist season, Portugal will open its borders to vaccinated US travellers.

The summer season has been badly affected by the ongoing pandemic, and the UK removing Portugal from its “green” list has left the Portuguese tourism industry devastated. Currently, Portugal belongs to the UK's “amber” list which means arrivals from Portugal need to be quarantined for 10 days.

Portugal will be the next European country to reopen its borders to fully vaccinated US travellers this summer after France.

News of the country's loosening travel restrictions came from Economy Minister Pedro Siza Viera, who appeared on a Portuguese radio station on 08 June.

We are in a position to approve the opening of non-essential travel and flights to people from the US to Portugal as long as they have a vaccination certificate.
I believe that next week we will be able to have this up and running.
Portugal Economy Minister Pedro Siza Viera

Travellers will need to have had their second (or final) vaccination dose at least two weeks before arriving in the country.

Portugal Entry Requirements

Though there is no definite date announced, travellers from the US will be able to enter Portugal if they can provide proof of full vaccination 14 days prior to arrival in the country.

Lifting restrictions for Americans will be a last-ditch attempt by the country to avoid another catastrophic blow to the country's GDP. According to Reuters, 1.2 million tourists from the US visited Portugal in 2019. That number dipped to 135,229 in 2020.

The vaccine must be approved by the European Medicines Agency and these include:

Pfizer-BioNTech
Moderna
AstraZeneca
Johnson & Johnson

All visitors from outside the EU will need to have proof of the full treatment otherwise they won’t be allowed to enter Portugal.

It is unknown if Portugal will also require a negative test to enter the country, similar to France or if they will allow just the vaccine cards like Croatia, Greece, and Spain.

Portugal’s Health Situation

Although the EU is still far from eradicating the COVID-19 virus, vaccination campaigns are rolling out fast, testing is easily available and the European Commission has gone live with the technical system at the EU level “to allow verifying certificates in a secure and privacy-friendly way,” a press release announced.

The issue of EU Digital Covid Certificate to all the countries of the bloc will permit safe and easy border crossing starting 1 July.

At the moment, cases in Portugal remain low with an average of around 600 cases per day. This has led to Portugal’s reopening for tourism in recent weeks, and the subsequent easing of restrictions with many of its neighbours.

Portugal has given over 6 million vaccine doses, with an average of 79,349 doses given each day. Therefore, Portugal is quickly vaccinating its population and gearing up to allow the world’s travellers to enter.

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