Germany Imposes Fresh Travel Restrictions Due To Virus Variant

Germany Imposes Fresh Travel Restrictions Due To Virus Variant.

Germany has announced new entry restrictions for travellers from the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Portugal and South Africa, over concerns that the more contagious coronavirus variants are spreading rapidly throughout the world.

In a new regulation released on Friday, Jan. 29,  the German government said that in addition to current testing and quarantine restrictions, “a temporary limitation shall be imposed on carriage of travellers from countries designated as regions with variants.”

The transportation ban will go into effect for all planes, trains, buses and ships from countries where the new variants have spread. Starting today, Sunday, the restrictions will also apply to travellers from the small African countries of Lesotho and Eswatini.

The restrictions are at present, currently set to run until February 17 after which there will be a review. There are several exceptions to the travel restrictions, including people who have right to reside in Germany and those who are transporting goods, as well as urgent medical transports and travel due to “urgent humanitarian reasons.”

Earlier this week, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said the plan will include completely halting flights into the country. He said the government was looking at even stricter border checks, “but also reducing air travel to Germany to almost zero, as Israel is currently doing.”

A slower than expected rollout of vaccines due to supply problems has forced EU governments to mull extending lockdown measures. Germany coped relatively well with the first coronavirus wave last spring, but it has been hit hard by a second wave in recent months.

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