March 29, 2024

Due to virus variants - Germany issues an entry ban

Due to virus variants – Germany issues an entry ban

Recently, the neighboring country will ban entry to countries where mutations are common. The ban is unlikely to affect Switzerland yet. But that could change soon.

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport: People from Great Britain, Brazil, South Africa, Ireland and Portugal can no longer enter Germany.

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport: People from Great Britain, Brazil, South Africa, Ireland and Portugal can no longer enter Germany.

Photo: Bear Airport

The German government is preparing to issue an entry ban on Friday. It is designed to meet travelers from areas where new, more infectious types of the virus are spreading. According to media reports, the first step in the ban is against entry from Great Britain, Brazil and South Africa, but also against European Union members Ireland and Portugal.

To the discomfort of the European Union, Germany does not wait until EU members agree on the appropriate rules, but creates the facts on its own. It is a question of doing what is necessary to protect the population, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Thursday before the meeting of European Union interior ministers. Other countries preceded it with similar bans in the past few days, such as the Netherlands or Belgium.

No controls at the German border

The German entry ban should not affect the return of Germans to their homes. However, they will need a negative test to enter the country in the future. Exceptions also apply to the movement of goods, diplomats, and similar groups. It is mainly carried out in air traffic; Static entry controls at the German border are yet to be planned. Seehofer said one wants to avoid a situation like Spring 2020. At that time, long bottlenecks for cars and trucks formed, especially on the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic.

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Germany will also control the entry ban at the land border, so Sihoefer, but only by means of so-called hijab hunting. This allows border police to take random samples in an area up to 30 kilometers behind the border.

The new entry ban will apply to countries called the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin List of “virus variants regions” Puts. This week Portugal was performed there again. Government departments said other countries may soon join in where new types of viruses are currently spreading strongly. It was initially about the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Denmark – but not Switzerland.

The rate of virus mutation is ten percent or higher

In the mentioned countries, the proportion of new virus mutations in positive samples has been recently determined to be 10 percent or higher. According to the authorities, the percentage in Germany is currently significantly lower: maybe 2%. However, unlike Denmark or the Netherlands, Germany is currently studying less than 1 percent of positive cases for the new variants.

In Switzerland, the proportion of variants in positive samples is already high as in the aforementioned neighboring countries in Germany. Martin Ackermann, head of the Swiss Coronavirus Task Force, which advises the Federal Council scientifically, said on Tuesday in Bern that he expects the “British” alternative in Switzerland to account for about half of the infections in March. From the task force’s point of view, B.1.1.7 could hardly be prevented from becoming the dominant viral variant in Switzerland.

If expectations come true, Switzerland could soon end up on the list of countries that Germany has issued an entry ban. If there were no exception rules for the nearly 60,000 people traveling to Switzerland from France and Germany every day, the northern Swiss border would be nearly closed since then.

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