On Monday, Germany's Health agency said they will lift the ban on travelers from some countries which are hit by the delta variant of Covid-19 namely; U.K, India, Russia, Portugal, and Nepal. Also, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said these nations would be reclassified from so-called virus variant countries to high incidence areas, by Wednesday.
This change will allow travelers to visit Germany as long as they follow quarantine and testing protocols.
Germany has introduced the 'virus variant country' travel category to put a stop to the new virus variant of coronavirus as it was not spread widely on the land. But, Health Minister (Jens Spanh) said last week that the Delta variant is becoming dominant in Germany, indicating that bans on countries affected by this variant of the virus may be lifted. As the research suggesting vaccines are effective against it, “we'll look into the situation in few days”, said Spanh.
Last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel had taken a tough call and had put restrictions and longer quarantines for people traveling from Britain, where the Delta Variant has caused an explosion in cases. Last Friday on her visit to London, she indicated that the restrictions might be on ease for the travelers from Britain. She said, “We think that in the foreseeable future, those who have received double jabs will... be able to travel again, without having to go into quarantine”.
Anyone can visit Germany from high incidence areas as long as they provide a negative test on the arrival. Visitors must follow the 10 days quarantine protocol, although they can end it after five days with another negative report. Travelers from high incidence areas are also spared if they have been fully vaccinated.
Although the countries with other variants apart from the Delta variant such as Brazil and South Africa will remain in the variant category.
RKI has reported that the conditions are getting better for Germany with a decline in the overall prevalence in recent weeks. On Monday, it has reported 212 new cases in the past 24hrs and a prevalence rate of 5 new infections per 100,000 people over the last seven days.
