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PCR testing is now mandatory for travelers at Austria’s airports. The regulation applies to return travelers and vacationers from the Netherlands, Spain and Cyprus.
PCR test obligation for travelers returning home
At Austrian airports, travelers returning to Austria and vacationers from the Netherlands, Spain or Cyprus must carry proof of their full immunization or a negative PCR test result upon arrival.
Travelers without appropriate proof must register and “immediately” make up a PCR test at the airport, provides the amendment to the entry regulation published in the night to Thursday. At Vienna Airport, this possibility exists directly in Office Park 3, where the Health Center is located. To start with, the passenger volume there was very low on Tuesday morning.
Five percent of all travelers affected
Vienna Airport assumes that a maximum of five percent of all arriving travelers will be affected, i.e. will have to go to the PCR test, spokesman Peter Kleemann told APA. On Tuesday morning’s Larnaca flight, he said, it was two to three passengers, and only a few more on the flights from Barcelona and Amsterdam. “The crowds at the Health Center are limited,” Kleemann said. During the day, he said, a total of 24 flights from the Netherlands, Spain and Cyprus were expected in Vienna.
Unsurprisingly, the new entry regulation does not meet with undivided approval. She has already been vaccinated once and always wears a mouth-nose protection, argued a passenger at the baggage carousel. An antigen test should also be enough, said another.
Voucher for PCR test
According to Kleemann, anyone who does not have the appropriate proof on arrival will receive a confirmation from the authorities at immigration control that a PCR test must be carried out. Included, according to the spokesman, is a voucher so that the examination is free of charge. Normally, 69 euros are charged for this at Vienna Airport.
People who refuse the PCR test face administrative penalties of up to 1,450 euros. The reason why the tests are only required at airports is that they can be administered. It would simply be too difficult to equip all border crossings with PCR tests, argued Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) last week.
— source: vienna.at/picture: pixabay.com
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