New anti- COVID- 19 measures from the Ministry of Health of Kosovo have caused chaos at the Morine border crossing with Albania, on Wednesday morning.
Even citizens with Kosovo citizenship who stayed in Albania for several weeks, were required to provide a negative COVID- 19 to enter the country.
The ambassador of Albania in Kosovo, Qemal Minxhozi told Exit News that such a decision was not discussed earlier.
“It is a unilateral decision by the Kosovo authorities, they have not consulted previously with the Albanian authorities,” Minxhozi said.
He empathized the fact that Albania did not impose such a measure for Kosovo’s citizens even when the number of infected in Kosovo was higher than in Albania.
The decision of the Ministry of Health says that foreign nationals entering Kosovo, including those with temporary or permanent residence permits in Kosovo, coming from high-risk countries according to the official list of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, must have a negative RT-PCR test for Covid-19, not older than 72 hours.
Exit News asked the National Center for Border Management about Albania’s citizens, which initially stated they were waiting for an interpretation of the Government’s decision.
However, later during the day, they confirmed for Exit News that “based on the principle of reciprocity and the fact that the countries of the region have a similar epidemiological situation, citizens coming from neighbouring countries, do not need an RT-PCR test when entering Kosovo until the next notification of the Ministry of Health”.
