Uzbekistan COVID-19 update. Uzbekistan made the media rounds a couple of months ago by making the pretty outlandish claim that if anyone travelled to the Central Asian republic and caught COVID-19, the Uzbek Government would pay the person USD$3000, not a sum to be scoffed at in the land of the som.

Well, since then Uzbekistan made it easy to avoid making any $3000 payments, by still restricting entry to the country and not allowing tourists. Since the original claims, Uzbekistan has had continued rolling lock-down restrictions and small Coronavirus outbreaks, meaning it’s had to keep border restrictions in place.

The Uzbek government have finally announced that they are opening their tourism industry again and are ready to start receiving guests from the 1^st of October.

The Uzbekistan government has introduced three levels of restrictions, making use of the tried and tested traffic light system.

Green Countries:

Travellers who have been in any of these countries in the last 14 days are allowed to enter Uzbekistan without any other restrictions and can immediately start travelling.

China, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Georgia, Hungary, Finland, Latvia, Austria and Japan.

Yellow and Red Countries:

Yellow countries are Azerbaijan, Belarus, UAE and all EU countries (except the UK and Spain).

Red countries are all the other countries in the world (including UK and Spain).

Both yellow and red countries have the same restrictions, which begs the question why did they require two separate groups?

Travellers who have been in a Yellow or Red country in the last 14 days will need to provide a negative PCR test before boarding their flight, which will also need to be shown when entering Uzbekistan. The PCR test will need to be from less than 72 hours before arriving in Uzbekistan.

Upon arriving in Uzbekistan you will need to spend 14 days in isolation before you are allowed to commence your trip.

Uzbekistan has also opened its land borders with the same requirements of a negative PCR test and 14 days Isolation in place.

Anyone arriving in Uzbekistan who appears to have symptoms will also be required to do a test regardless of whether they have a negative test or whether they are from Green, Yellow or Red countries, which will result in medical quarantine if positive or the original 14-day isolation if negative.

Most importantly for those wanting to turn a small profit, there is no longer any word of a $3000 bounty if your catch COVID and the compulsory medical quarantine if you do produce a positive test while in the country will cost more than that anyway!