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Hundreds of journeys delayed by new Swedish and Danish Covid-19 testing rules

At least 600 people travelling from Denmark have been denied entry to Sweden since the latter country introduced a new requirement for entry Covid-19 tests on December 28th.

Published: 29 December 2021 19:17 CET
Swedish police check papers at the Öresund Bridge border with Denmark on December 28th. Hundreds of travellers are reported to have been turned away due to a new Covid-19 test requirement.
Swedish police check papers at the Öresund Bridge border with Denmark on December 28th. Hundreds of travellers are reported to have been turned away due to a new Covid-19 test requirement. Photo: Anders Bjurö/TT/Ritzau Scanpix

Sweden’s Polisregion Syd, which conducts police control at the Öresund Bridge, Helsingborg and Ystad border points, confirmed the figure to Danish news wire Ritzau on Wednesday, as reported by broadcaster DR.

The border refusals are related to a new rule introduced by Sweden on December 28th requiring most travellers from Denmark to present a negative Covid-19 test at the border. The test must be no more than 48 hours old.

READ ALSO: Sweden implements new Covid-19 test rules for travel from Denmark

The Swedish police did not give exact details on the number of Danish citizens who were among the refusals, but said they constituted the “considerable majority”.

The 600 persons were refused entry between midnight on December 28th and 7am on Wednesday.

As of December 28th, many foreign travellers need to show a negative Covid test to be allowed to enter Sweden, regardless of whether or not they are fully vaccinated and regardless of which country they’re travelling from – non-EU, EU or any of the Nordic countries.

Swedish citizens and foreign residents who can prove they live in Sweden are among the categories of travellers who are exempt from showing a negative test.

People travelling from the EU, including Nordic countries Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland, need to show a negative test, regardless of vaccination status.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s own rules for entry testing also presented problems for travellers heading to Sweden on Wednesday.

Under rules introduced on December 27th, all travellers are required to test for Covid-19 in connection with arrival in Denmark. The rule applies to Danish citizens and residents as well as foreign visitors and applies regardless of vaccination status.

Residents of Denmark are permitted to take a test up to 24 hours after arrival, while people without an address in Denmark must take a Covid-19 test before entry to the Scandinavian country.

READ ALSO: Travellers returning to Denmark after Christmas must take Covid-19 test

A number of exceptions apply to the testing requirement, including children under the age of 15 and persons with addresses in border regions Schlesvig-Holstein (Germany) and Blekinge, Skåne, Halland and Västra Götaland (Sweden).

Travellers who transit through Denmark and stay for less than one day before leaving are likewise not required to test. This allows, for example, Swedish residents who travel through Copenhagen Airport before continuing their journeys overland to avoid the testing requirement.

The Local Sweden reporter Becky Waterton was not permitted to board her SAS flight from Manchester to Copenhagen on December 29th. SAS cited Denmark’s testing requirement and would not permit Waterton to board until she and her partner paid around 80 pounds to take Covid-19 tests at Manchester Airport.

When presented with official information showing Denmark’s entry testing rules, an airline staff member claimed the information was “not updated”, she said.

Waterton should have been exempted from the testing requirement because she was transiting through Denmark and leaving the country within 24 hours; and additionally because she resides in one of the border regions.

The exemptions for border residents and transit travellers are outlined on the websites of both the Danish Ministry of Health and the country’s Coronasmitte official information page for travellers.

Have you run into problems travelling to Denmark or Sweden as a result of the new restrictions? We’d be interested to hear from you if so — you’re welcome to get in touch with either The Local Sweden or The Local Denmark.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Here’s 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
Here's 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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