{"id":103338,"date":"2020-06-09T15:50:54","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T22:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103338"},"modified":"2020-06-09T15:51:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T22:51:26","slug":"sri-lanka-opens-to-tourists-on-august-1-but-requires-four-covid-19-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/09\/sri-lanka-opens-to-tourists-on-august-1-but-requires-four-covid-19-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka opens to tourists on August 1, but requires four COVID-19 tests."},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy matador network<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>SRI LANKA IS&nbsp;planning to welcome tourists back starting on August 1, 2020, but it\u2019s taking this step with a serious safety protocol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many countries are now requiring a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival, administering them at the airports, but Sri Lanka is requiring\u00a0<em>four<\/em>\u00a0tests. According to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/srilanka.travel\/travel-news&amp;news=729\" target=\"_blank\">Sri Lanka Tourism<\/a>, the first test must be taken within 72 hours of your departure to Sri Lanka, and the second will be administered at the airport, on arrival, for free. While you\u2019re waiting for the results \u2014 it could take up to 24 hours \u2014 you must wait in a hotel in Colombo or Negombo. Assuming you test negative, you will be required to take another test four to five days after arrival via a mobile unit, and if you\u2019re staying longer, yet another test after 10 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While this may be inconvenient,\u201d the tourism website acknowledges, it is essential to safeguard everybody and provide peace of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you do test positive after any of these four tests, you will be placed in quarantine for 14 to 21 days, depending on your symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the tests, a tourist visa will now cost $100 (it was previously free), and in your visa application you must provide your itinerary, proof of medical insurance, booking details, and return ticket information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So yes, visiting Sri Lanka after August will definitely be possible, but you\u2019ll have to be committed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy matador network SRI LANKA IS&nbsp;planning to welcome tourists back starting on August 1, 2020, but it\u2019s taking this step with a serious safety protocol. Many countries are now requiring a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival, administering them at the airports, but Sri Lanka is requiring\u00a0four\u00a0tests. According to\u00a0Sri Lanka Tourism, the first test must be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}