“Travel measures have minimal impact on the evolution of the pandemic, especially now that the Omicron variant has become or is about to become the predominant variant across the EU”, stresses the ECDC, in a written response sent to Lusa.

The position comes after EU member states agreed that people with a valid Covid-19 Certificate, such as vaccinated or recovered, should not be subject to “additional restrictions on free movement”, such as testing or quarantine, to facilitate trips.

“Currently, the risk of infection imported by international travellers is no different from the risk of infection in the countries of destination”, stresses the European country support agency.

At this time, the EU is witnessing a high resurgence of cases of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, mainly due to the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant.

“A part of Omicron cases are still travel related, but this is largely due to the fact that cases of Covid-19 in travellers are even more likely to be sequenced and reported as such”, explains the ECDC.