From Monday, July 12th, Norway will change its travel rules and take the US off of its purple list, meaning travellers from the US will no longer be able to travel to Norway to visit close family or partners living in Norway. 

Entry to Norway from the US will be restricted to residents and citizens, with a few exceptions, such as travelling for childcare, that you can read more about here.

The US was only introduced to Norway’s purple list this week after Norway finished harmonising its Covid country classification system with EU thresholds. 

Purple list countries are a select few countries from the EU’s third country list that allow the close family and partners of Norwegian residents and citizens to visit Norway. You can read more about the travel rules for purple countries here. 

The announcement was made in a statement on the government’s website. 

Reader question: When will Norway relax its Covid border rules for partners outside the EEA?

It is not currently clear why the government has axed the US from its list as the Covid incidence rate per 100,000 in the US is 56 for the past 14 days, according to DataUSA. 

This leaves it just above the threshold for a green country that allows entry free quarantine for everyone but well below the threshold for an orange/red country that provides entry for partners and families with quarantine. You can read more about the thresholds here. 

However, it is worth noting that there is no set threshold for purple countries. Instead, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health assesses countries from the third country list individually.  

Norway also announced several changes to other countries as part of its weekly assessment of the infection situation in regards to travel. 

• Luxembourg – goes from green to orange.
• Ireland, Latvia and Monaco – go from red to orange.
• Andorra, Spain, Great Britain, Cyprus, Portugal – go from orange to red.
• The Finnish regions Helsinki and Uusimaa SVD, Kymenlaakso SVD and Päijat-Häme SVD – go from green to orange.
• Crete, Greece – goes from green to orange.
• Balearic Islands, Spain – goes from orange to red.
• The United States gets removed from purple list.

You can read the full list of changes as well as the different entry and quarantine rules for green, orange and red countries here.