Germany extends virus travel warning for beyond EU
The German government said Wednesday it was extending a travel warning for countries outside the European Union until September 14 over ongoing concerns linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
Government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said the decision to extend the advisory against "tourism trips" to so-called third countries—those outside the EU and the no-passport Schengen zone—had been taken in the face of rising infection numbers in Germany attributed to travellers.
The current warning had been set to run out on August 31 but a foreign ministry spokeswoman said that the "very dynamic development" of the pandemic required continued vigilance.
"We are seeing that many countries' infection numbers are continuing to rise or rising again," she said.
"We are also seeing that the rising number of infections (in Germany) often has to do with people returning from abroad and bringing the infection with them."
Germany introduced an unprecedented warning against all foreign travel in mid-March at the height of the coronavirus outbreak.
In June it eased the policy for European Union partners, Britain and parts of Turkey.
But it has since designated areas that have reported a spike in COVID-19 cases including regions of France, Spain, Belgium and Croatia to be high risk, while lifting restrictions on countries such as Luxembourg.
The high-risk designation by the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases means travellers returning to Germany from there must take a free mandatory COVID-19 test and face a period of quarantine.
The foreign ministry's travel warning does not constitute a ban but is intended as a strong deterrent, and allows travellers to cancel trips at no cost.
Germany has fared better than many of its European neighbours during the pandemic but infection rates have risen this month to levels not seen since April.
Germany on Wednesday reported 236,429 COVID-19 infections, up 1,576 on the previous day, with a total of 9,280 deaths.
© 2020 AFP
