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Sweden updates Covid-19 testing and isolating rules for travellers

Everyone who enters Sweden from a country outside the Nordic region should continue to get tested for Covid-19 after arriving, after the Public Health Agency updated its recommendation.

Published: 31 August 2021 11:37 CEST
Sweden updates Covid-19 testing and isolating rules for travellers
Testing is available at some airports in Sweden, like the booth at Arlanda pictured here. Photo: Claudio Bresciani / TT

Travellers who are not fully vaccinated and arrive from outside the Nordics (Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland) should avoid contact with others for one week after arriving (including, for example, not visiting shops, using public transport or having visitors to their home) and should take a test soon as possible after arriving.

This applies to both Swedish and foreign citizens, regardless of the reason for travel, although children under six and people who have received their second dose of a coronavirus vaccine at least two weeks before arrival in Sweden are exempt. However, even people who are fully vaccinated should get tested if they experience any symptoms of the virus – this applies regardless of whether they have recently been abroad.

A separate guideline for travellers from certain countries outside the EU to take a second test and isolate for one week on arrival was previously in place until August 31st, but has now been scrapped. This means that the same recommendations, to take one test on arrival and be “careful” about social contacts, now apply to all people who arrive in Sweden from outside the Nordic countries.

From September 1st, people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and recovered within the last six months are also exempt. The current guidelines are in place until at least October 31st.

“Several countries have a greater spread of infection than Sweden, and in contract tracing work we see that a relatively high proportion of Covid-19 cases are still linked to travel abroad,” the Public Health Agency’s deputy state epidemiologist Karin Tegmark Wisell said in a statement explaining why the testing recommendation had been extended.

Tests are free for people arriving in Sweden from overseas, and can be arranged by ordering one from 1177.se or using a drop-in centre. The 1177 website for your region (you can pick your region using the drop-down “välj region” menu at the top) should have more information, and Sweden’s larger airports also offer tests for some arriving passengers. The 1177 website for your region should also tell you how to book a test if you don’t normally live in Sweden and don’t have a Swedish personal ID number.

Unlike many countries but in line with Sweden’s strategy of using fewer legal restrictions, the recommendations to test and isolate are not legally enforced, but it is still not considered optional.

Even people who are exempt from taking the tests on arrival are still expected to be “careful” after travelling from overseas, according to the Public Health Agency. This includes paying close attention even to mild symptoms, keeping a distance from other people, and avoiding meeting people who belong to Covid-19 risk groups.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Where Malmö plans to place its first three Copenhagen Metro stops

Politicians in the Swedish city of Malmö have decided where the first three stops will be if a new Öresund Metro is built, linking the city to the Danish capital - and they are planning on using the earth excavated to build a whole new city district.

Published: 24 April 2024 15:56 CEST
Where Malmö plans to place its first three Copenhagen Metro stops

Malmö and Copenhagen have been pushing for an Öresund Metro linking the two cities since at least 2011, but so far neither the Swedish government nor the Danish one have committed to stumping up their share of the roughly 30 billion Danish kroner (47 billion Swedish kronor, €4 billion) required.

Malmö hopes the Swedish government will take a decision on the project this autumn, and in preparation, the city’s planning board last Thursday took a decision on where the first three stops of the Öresund Metro should be placed.

They have selected Fullriggaren (currently a bus stop at the outermost tip of the city’s Västra Hamnen district), Stora Varvsgatan, in the centre of Västra Hamnen, and Malmö’s Central Station, as the first three stops, after which the idea is to extend the metro into the city. 

Stefana Hoti, the Green Party councillor who chairs the planning committee, said that the new Fehmarn Belt connection between the Danish island of Lolland and Germany, which is expected to come into use in 2029, will increase the number of freight trains travelling through Copenhagen into Sweden making it necessary to build a new route for passengers.

Part of the cost, she said, could come from tolls levied on car and rail traffic over the existing Öresund Bridge, which will soon no longer need to be used to pay off loans taken to build the bridge more than 20 years ago.  

“The bridge will be paid off in the near future. Then the tolls can be used to finance infrastructure that strengthens the entire country and creates space for more freight trains on the bridge,” Hoti told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

After Fullriggaren the next stop would be at Lergravsparken in the Amagerbro neighbourhood, which connects with the current M2 line, after which the there will be four new stops on the way to Copenhagen Central, including DR Byen on the current M1 line. 

The hope is that the Öresund Metro will reduce the journey time between Copenhagen Central and Malmö Central from 40 minutes to 25 minutes. 

Source: Oresunds Metro

But that’s not all. Excavating a tunnel between Malmö and Copenhagen will produce large amounts of earth, which the architect firm Arkitema has proposed should be used to extend Malmö’s Västra Hamnen district out into the sea, creating a new coastal district called Galeonen, meaning “The Galleon”, centred on the Fullriggaren Metro stop. 

This project is similar to the Lynetteholm project in Copenhagen, which will use earth excavated for the Copenhagen Metro extension to build a peninsular in front of Copenhagen Harbour, providing housing and protecting the city from rising sea levels. 

Rather than producing a sea wall to protect the new area from rising sea levels, Arkitema and its partner, the Danish engineering firm COWI, have proposed a new coastal wetland area. 

“Instead of building a wall, we extended the land out into the sea. Then a green area is formed which is allowed to flood, and over time it will become a valuable environment, partly as a green area for Malmö residents, partly because of the rich biodiversity that will be created there,” Johanna Wadhstorp, an architect for Arkitema based in Stockholm, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper. 
 
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