Good news for Christmas travel: Self-isolation guidelines amended and test now an option.

Many foreigners in Denmark have been wondering what to do about the coming holiday season. The new self-isolation guidelines could be an opening for some.

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By Bente D. Knudsen

For residents in Denmark, who have travelled to an orange or high-risk country or region, the current recommendation is to self-isolate for 14 days upon return.

Take note that all public employees at present must self-isolate at their own cost upon return if they travel to an orange country and this is also valid for a range of Danish business employees, so even if only a recommendation, it can be read as a clear requirement.

If it were mandatory, it would require police surveillance and legislation passed in the Danish Parliament.

This is valid for all travels that are qualified as non-essential, it does not apply to business travels.

The Danish term, used by the Danish Foreign Office in their guidelines, is “ikke nødvendige rejser”.

The self-isolation recommendation will be amended as of 1 December 2020 from 14 to 10 days.

The amendment is based on advice by the Danish Health Authorities, the Danish Foreign Office informs, and the reduced amount of days correspond to the amount of isolation days required in for instance Germany and several other European countries.

NEW is that the self-isolation can be broken by travellers to an orange or high-risk country or region if they take a COVID-19 test four days after their return to Denmark.

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If the test result is negative, they can end their self-isolation.

Thus, the self-isolation period can drop to five days (in Denmark the current coronavirus test results (PCR) are mostly available within 24 hours).

The new guideline should make it easier to travel home for foreigners living here who wish to visit friends and family (what is qualified as non-essential travel by the Danish Foreign Office) and who have the possibilty to self-isolate for five days upon return to Denmark.

Of course under the condition that they can travel to the country in question without having to isolate there upon arrival.