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Travel: Norway to accept Covid passes from England and Wales 

Frazer Norwell
Frazer Norwell - [email protected]
Travel: Norway to accept Covid passes from England and Wales 
Norway will begin accepting the NHS app as proof of vaccination. Photo by L.Filipe C.Sousa on Unsplash

Entry rules and restrictions for fully vaccinated travellers from England and Wales using the NHS App will be eased, Norway’s foreign minister has confirmed. 

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Norway will loosen its entry restrictions and open up to fully jabbed arrivals from England and Wales using the NHS Covid App as proof of vaccination. 

“It is very positive that we get this solution in place for everyone with family, friends and partners in England and Wales who have corona certificates and who will now have the opportunity to travel to Norway,” Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide confirmed to national newspaper VG.

Under the new rules, travellers with the NHS app will be treated the same as arrivals using the EU Covid passport. This means that entry will open to people who have been fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 in the past six months and can prove so via the NHS app, regardless of the reason for travel. 

In addition, travellers will no longer need to test before and after arrival in Norway, quarantine, or register their entry.

Children under the age of 18 travelling with vaccine pass holders without their own Covid certificate will also be exempt. 

The new rules will not apply to those who have been vaccinated as part of the Novavax clinical trials until it gets European Medicines Agency approval. 

Furthermore Norway will only accept QR code versions of vaccine pass available on the app, no paper vaccine certificates will be accepted.

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No date has been set for when the NHS app will be accepted but the Norwegian government has said that it will happen within the next week.

You can took a look at the official announcement (in Norwegian) here

Currently, only residents and citizens of Norway and the close family and partners of residents of citizens can travel to Norway from the United Kingdom. You can read more about the entry rules here

Under the rules in place at the moment, arrivals from the UK who don’t have a Norwegian or EU Covid-19 certificate are also subject to a three-day minimum stay at a quarantine hotel as well as testing before their arrival and once again at the border, as well as entry registration.

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Norway will only be accepting Covid passes from England and Wales as they use the NHS app. Proof of vaccination from Northern Ireland and Scotland will not be accepted as they have their own solutions meaning Norway cannot currently verify proof vaccination from these areas. 

In its current state, it looks unlikely that Norway will accept Scottish vaccine certificates as the system in Scotland is entirely paper-based, and therefore potentially easier to counterfeit than a digital version. 

Scotland is in the process of digitising its vaccine pass system, so there is the potential for the other UK nations to get their vaccine certificates approved in the future. 

READ ALSO: What does Norway being on the UK’s green list mean for travellers?

Earlier this week, the UK government announced that Norway would be moved to its green travel list, meaning that arrivals from Norway would no longer be required to quarantine on arrival but would still need to test before travelling on day two and fill out the passenger locator form. 

On Sunday at 4am Norway will officially be on the green list. Any arrivals before this will still be treated as travellers from amber countries, even after the rules change. You can read more about the rules for amber arrivals here.  

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