Historical archive

Travel advice introduced for countries in southern Africa

Historical archive

Published under: Støre's Government

Publisher: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued travel advice against all non-essential travel to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The new travel advice has been introduced in response to the emergence of a new, worrying variant of the coronavirus (B.1.1.529) in several countries in southern Africa. In line with the recommendations of the health authorities, the Ministry has decided to issue advice against non-essential travel to these eight countries.

Since the global travel advice was rescinded on 1 October, the Ministry has issued travel advice for specific countries on the basis of a comprehensive, overall assessment of various factors, including the potential ramifications of the pandemic. There is still very limited knowledge about the new variant of the virus, and the Ministry will revise the list of countries as needed as more information becomes available. The travel advice will be reviewed on an ongoing basis in consultation with the health authorities.

It is recommended that Norwegian citizens who are in these countries comply with local infection protection measures and follow the development of the situation in local and international media. Please register on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ travel information portal www.reiseregistrering.no (Norwegian only) or in the Ministry’s app Reiseklar to receive information from the Norwegian authorities.

See here for more information about the Ministry’s travel advice (Norwegian only).

See here for more information about travelling abroad during the pandemic.

For more information, see the website of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.