Airport, Baltic States – CIS, Covid-19, Estonia, Legislation, Tourism

"We are definitely not planning to carry out blanket testing, it wasn't done at the peak of the crisis either, but [the requirement to spend] two weeks in self-isolation applies to these people," Eike Kingsepp, media adviser to the Health Board, told BNS on Thursday.

She said that the Health Board was not counting on people's good will alone as far as self-isolation is concerned but was checking abidance by the mandatory self-isolation requirement with the Police and Border Guard Board.

Kingsepp added that officials from the Health Board and the Police and Border Guard Board on Thursday checked compliance with the quarantine requirement by the people who arrived in Estonia onboard a special flight from Kiev organized by the Estonian Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce on July 21.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications bases its decision on allowing or prohibiting direct flights to Estonia on the infection rate in individual countries, which must be 25 or fewer cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 14 days for flights to be permitted. As at July 24, the ratio was 24.5 in Ukraine and 24.1 in Belarus.

Spokesman for the ministry Taavi Audo told BNS that updated data on infections is published once a week on Fridays. For instance, if it is revealed this Friday that the rate of infection in Ukraine or Belarus has again climbed above 25, the ministry will prohibit direct flights from the country in  question.